


Make Them Gold

by nevillesIongbottom



Series: Rise Of A Sun/Fall Of A Star. ー ❪ a Harry Potter au ❫ [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Sexual Assault, Background Relationships, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Evil Voldemort (Harry Potter), Friends to Lovers, Good Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Grooming, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, LGBTQ Themes, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Manipulative Relationship, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant, Parent Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Parent Remus Lupin, Parent Tom Riddle, Sane Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 27
Words: 150,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26798431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevillesIongbottom/pseuds/nevillesIongbottom
Summary: Asterope Malfoy had always wanted nothing more than to make herself gold and free herself from the confines of her family’s extremely dark and shockingly evil past. When she was sorted into Hufflepuff, she changed her name, disowned herself from her family, and did everything a Malfoy and a Black shouldn't do. The last thing she wanted or needed was to wind up in the Triwizard Tournament, have a year long identity crisis, and all the while falling in love with her best friend Neville Longbottom, the only person who ever believed that she could be good.But, of course, she should have expected all that to happen to her. Things never did go easy for the members of the noble and most ancient house of Black who tried to free or better themselves. Take what happened to poor Andromeda Tonks, disowned for loving someone her parents didn't approve of. And nobody dared talk about Bellatrix Lestrange or Sirius Black and the damage they caused. It was often said that only the lonely survived in that family. And unfortunately, try as hard as she might, Asterope was no exception.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Original Female Character(s), Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, George Weasley/Original Male Character(s), Luna Lovegood/Original Female Character(s), Neville Longbottom/Original Female Character(s), Nymphadora Tonks/Original Female Character(s), Pansy Parkinson/Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/Original Female Character(s), Tom Riddle/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Rise Of A Sun/Fall Of A Star. ー ❪ a Harry Potter au ❫ [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2180088
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	1. Prologue: Not Very Malfoy-Like

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which asterope malfoy proves once more that she's not very malfoy-like . . . | alternatively: aurelia black is born . . . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Make Them Gold Official Trailer!](https://youtu.be/wUBbp5sseg8)   
>  [The Prophecy Of Star-Crossed Lovers Video!](https://youtu.be/AEsOTOvPryE)   
>  [Make Them Gold Book Cover!](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/644833021294444544/make-them-gold-the-golden-trio-era-%F0%93%86%8F-can-be-read)   
>  [Make Them Gold Main Cast!](https://imgur.com/a/k8eT2dz)   
>  [Make Them Gold Extended Cast!](https://imgur.com/a/dgZnqm0)   
>  [Make Them Gold Spotify Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5b3ARbFPYZZ5C4Bi8glZ8b)   
> 

****

**PROLOGUE** :

 **000 ||** Not Very Malfoy-Like

* * *

" **DIDN'T YOU GET** any sleep last night, wee moon," Mae Macleod asks Asterope Malfoy who is more commonly known as Aurelia Malfoy because her first name is usually too much of a mouthful even for her parents. Mae Macleod is the Malfoy's Squib maid, she's been with the Black Family longer than she had been with her own family and Aurelia Malfoy had taken a liking to the older woman. She runs a brush through the young girl's thick curls as she asks the question. Her Scottish accent is thick and though over the years Aurelia has grown accustomed to it, in her sleepy state, it takes a few minutes for her to process what Mae has said.

Finally, Aurelia shakes her head and tries to stifle a yawn but fails to do. Mae smiles fondly at her as she starts to braid Aurelia's blue hair.

"You know we're off to Diagon Alley today," Mae queries, "You have got a long day ahead o' you, wee moon."

"I know," Aurelia says softly, the Scottish lilt of her voice makes Mae grin.

"So, how come you didn't sleep last night?"

Aurelia shrugs.

"Nightmares?"

Aurelia shakes her head.

"Nerves?"

She shrugs again.

"The scars?"

Aurelia shrinks in her seat, suddenly finding the floor much more interesting than the mirror.

Mae sighs softly "Wee moon, no one will see them —"

"But I can't always hide them, I'm not good at controlling it!" Aurelia exclaims, her hairs turns white which only proves her point.

Mae grabs her chin gently and turns Aurelia's head so that they are facing each other "Calm your nerves, wee moon, I'll see if your father will allow you more lessons with Tonks."

"M'kay." Aurelia mumbles, still frowning.

Mae presses a kiss to her nose "You've got nothin' to worry about when I'm around, wee moon!"

Looking slightly less worried than before, Aurelia giggles and nods her head.

Mae smiles and lets go of her chin "Well, your locks are all prettied up. I have to go and wake your brother up now." she says with a shake of her head, "He's worse than your father when it comes to mornin's!"

Once the Squib has left Aurelia's room, she frowns. Looking at her face in the mirror, Aurelia has to hold back tears at the sight of the scars marring the right side of her face. The sounds of her screams and animalistic growls echo in her mind, her slender fingers graze over the smaller ones next to larger one and she struggles not break down in tears. Aurelia squeezes her eyes and tries her best to concentrate on making her scars go away but when she opens her eyes the most she could do is make them a bit smaller.

She lets out a pitiful whine, her hair turning gold.

Her Metamorphmagus abilities are next to dismal, the most she can do is occasionally her hair the colour she wants but most of the time all it does is make her stand out like a sore thumb. Aurelia is often referred to as the 'odd one out' by her parents' friends and as much as she hates it, they aren't wrong. It seems the only thing that makes her a Malfoy is her name, she doesn't share the same appearance as them, sometimes and although Aurelia tries she doesn't share the same beliefs as them, she doesn't act like them. Most of the time she feels like an outcast in her own home.

She sighs sadly and represses the urge to throw her mirror on the ground. Aurelia wishes she looks more like her brother, after all he is her twin brother and they should, at least, look sort of alike. Her and Draco couldn't be anymore different. He's pale-haired, pale-skinned, freckle-less, and well-behaved. Aurelia is the exact opposite of him. The only thing the twins share in common are the fact they're spoiled brats.

Aurelia looks into the mirror again and her annoyance flares at the sight of the myriad of freckles on her face. She doesn't have much time to think about how much she loathes them as her brother comes knocking on her door.

He's got more energy than usual "Lia! Lia! It's today!" Draco screams, "We're going today! We get our wands today!"

Draco practically leaps over her bed to get to her and when he does he tackles her into a hug.

"Today," He squeals.

Aurelia squirms in his grasp "Today," she squeals although less enthusiastically than him.

"Aren't you excited," He asks excitedly.

"Yes," Aurelia replies but she doesn't sound the least bit excited.

Draco is not deterred by her cynical tone because he knows that she's excited but as usual she's letting her pessimistic thoughts get in the way.

"We're going to Hogwarts! We're going to make so many new friends!"

Aurelia snorts at this "You are, I'm not."

Draco has always been the more outgoing twin and while Aurelia isn't shy by any means, she had always been the more quiet twin. Most of the friends her brother has should've been her friends too but most of them don't like how quiet she is so they stuck with Draco. Then after the werewolf attack she became even more quiet, her parents seem to like her better that way.

She had lost most of her friends after the attack, Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott are the only ones that still call her a friend but even then they still play with Draco more. At least they have the decency to look her in the eyes when the come over for a playdate.

He frowns, grabbing her face and peppering kisses all over the scarred half of her face. It's something Draco has done since the attack, he likes to think that doing that will make her feel better and sometimes it does.

"You'll make lots of friends, Lia! Your scars are awesome, you fought a werewolf and that's amazing!"

Aurelia shrugs "I didn't fight a werewolf, it tried to use me as its' chew-toy."

"Dad says he saw you punch it before he could intervene," Draco says.

"I thought that might've worked," Aurelia whispers sheepishly.

"So you did fight a werewolf," Draco says, his grey eyes wide with wonder.

Aurelia opens her mouth to argue but pauses, Draco's way too stubborn and she's way too stressed out to start a fight "Sure, I fought a werewolf."

Draco grins and places several more kisses on her scars before letting her go "By the way, mum made chocolate chip waffles — your favourite," He tells her then runs out of her room almost barrelling into Mae who moves out of the way just in time.

"I haven't seen the tyke that excited since your father brought those brooms for the both of you."

Aurelia laughs quietly, she wishes she can be as happy as her brother.

"I've got a surprise for you, wee moon." Mae tells Aurelia who perks up at the word 'suprise'.

"A surprise?"

"Aye, it's make-up. . . Special make-up that'll help hide your scar. It's magic, I had mukker o' mine charm it for you," Mae explains, revealing a jar of alabaster-coloured creme that she had hid behind her back.

Aurelia throws herself at Mae, sobbing "Thank — thank you, Mae." as she hugs the squib tightly.

"Anythin' for you, wee moon," Mae says softly, smoothing Aurelia's hair down.

"Can you put it on me now," Aurelia questions.

Mae smiles softly "O' Course! O' course!"

* * *

****

* * *

**HAVING HER SCARS** hidden from sight makes Aurelia feel a thousand times more excited about the trip to Diagon Alley. But, she's upset by the fact that her parents have left her in the company of Mae, they usually do this but Aurelia had thought that since no one can see her scars they might've taken her with them.

She's used to them doing this, they always take her brother with them and leave her with Mae — their Squib maid. Thanks to this, Aurelia has become rather attached to Mae despite the fact she is a Squib and should be treated as dirt.

Aurelia sighs dejectedly as her parents tug Draco away from Aurelia and down the street of the alley. Draco isn't the least bit thrilled that Aurelia won't be joining them and almost threw a fit about it but their dad had pulled him away before he could start screaming.

Mae places a comforting hand on Aurelia's shoulder.

"You want to get your wand first," She asks.

Aurelia nods her head quickly, a small smile forming on her face. _At least I have Mae_ , she thinks.

"Let's go get your wand then, wee moon," Mae says giddily, "Oooh, this is gonna be excitin'! When I took little Ellie for his wand he went through about ten wands before he found the perfect wand. It had Ollivander quite frazzled."

Ellie — or rather, Elias is the boy Mae cares for. He's her adoptive son and Aurelia's met him twice, her parents think that Regulus is his father because they look so much alike but they can't tell for certain. If Elias is in fact his son than that would mean, Regulus would've lived longer than everyone thought and that would mean he's a Traitor because he ran from the Dark Lord, or Voldemort as Aurelia calls him. Either way, Ellie's like family to Aurelia even though they don't see each other often.

Before they got to Ollivander's, Mae spots her sister-in-law and her kids so she pulls Aurelia in the opposite direction of the wand shop.

"Oi, I see Molly with her little ones, maybe you can make some friends," Mae tells Aurelia.

Instinctively, Aurelia's hands move to cover her face only to remember that no one can see her scar because of the make-up. She swallows thickly and allows Mae to drag her over to the family of redheads.

She knows they're the Weasleys and she has mixed feelings on them. She has been raised to hate them but she doesn't because neither Mae or her Aunt Andromeda hate them and a lot of times Aurelia finds herself siding with them instead of her parents though she doesn't mean to. She just doesn't like to be mean to people even if they're less than she is.

Aurelia tugs on Mae's shirt "Are they nice," she wonders.

Mae looks down at Aurelia, she smiles and nods "O' course, they're nice! I wouldn't be introducin' you to them if they weren't."

"Molls," She calls out to the other redhead.

Aurelia can see Molly Weasley tense up but her children start grinning.

"Auntie Mae," The little girl exclaims.

"Awright there, wee Ginerva," Mae greets.

The twin boys share looks of shock and whisper to each other, Aurelia covers her face and wonders if her scars are showing; Ginerva rushes forward and hugs Mae.

"What are you doing here, Aunt Mae," One of the twins asks.

"Where's Ellie," The other asks.

"Ellie went to Lee's house for the day and I'm takin', Aurelia here, shopping for her school supplies," Mae replies.

The Weasley children turn their attention on Aurelia.

"Who are you," One of the twins asks.

"She just said my name," Aurelia says without thinking.

The oldest of the kids hides a small grin by looking away, the twins share another look, the tall boy laughs from behind his mother, and Ginerva snickers.

"I like her! Her hair is cool! Friends," Ginerva says, holding out her hand for Aurelia to shake.

Aurelia hesitates, her dad would never allow this but he's not here at the moment so she looks to Mae who nods and gently nudges Aurelia forward.

She shakes Ginerva's hand "Friends."

Ginerva grins "I'm Ginny by the way! Never call me Ginerva, only Auntie Mae can do that because she sounds funny when she says it. Do you have a nickname, your name's kind of a mouthful, I'm gonna call you, Blue!"

Aurelia blinks and nods "Okay."

She looks to Mae who laughs and pats her head "She's a talkative one, ain't she?"

Aurelia nods and Ginny blushes "It's okay though, I like it."

Mae points at the children "That's Percy, that's Fred and that's George, and that tree right there is, Ronniekins!"

The tall one turns red and exclaims "My name's Ron!"

Mae grins teasingly at him then turns to Aurelia and says: "He's goin' to be startin' Hogwarts this year."

Aurelia observes Ron. They're a lot alike, she thinks, they're both tall and lanky although she's not as tall as him, she's just tall for her age, they're both covered in freckles, and they're both trying to use their mother\ mother figures as shield but are failing to do so.

Ron smiles shyly at her and she decides she likes him so she holds her hand out for him to shake "Friends?"

"Friends," He agrees, shaking her hand.

"Hey," The one that Aurelia thinks is Fred exclaims.

"What about us," George cries. He's got a lower voice than Fred, Aurelia notes, he's also got a mole on the right side of his neck that Fred doesn't have.

"You want to be my friends too," Aurelia asks, shocked.

The twins nod and grin.

"We all want to be your friends, you can't escape us now," Fred says jokingly.

Aurelia freezes, her eyes fill with tears and she presses herself into Mae. The twins' amusement turns to confusion. Aurelia breathes heavily, suddenly feeling trapped. _You can't escape me now, little girl_ , the woman croons, _Greyback will be so pleased I've found you_.

Aurelia's heart begins to race — _this can't be happening_.

 _She's dead. She's dead. She's dead_. The woman lets out a howl of pain, struggling towards Aurelia who blinks desperately trying to banish that woman from her mind.

"Do you have a wand?" Ginny asks but Aurelia doesn't respond, she doesn't even look at Ginny.

Aurelia grips onto Mae's shirt with all her strength, feeling the smooth material against her trembling fingertips against her trembling fingertips. _This isn't happening_ , Aurelia tells herself. It can't be happening but there's that woman standing right before her in those woods — _no_ , in the alley that she stands in but that can't be.

 _Come — come here, little girl_ , the woman calls out to Aurelia, her voice's pained. Her blonde, dishevelled hair hiding most of her scarred face. Aurelia feels a crippling fear welling up in her chest. _Come here, little — little girl, please_ , her bones begin to crack loudly and the woman cries out painfully, almost falling at Aurelia's feet —

"Do you have a wand?" Ginny asks again, tugging gently on Aurelia cloak though her mother and aunt tell her not to.

Aurelia blinks, the woman's gone, finally. She's in Diagon Alley not in the forest. Aurelia grips Mae's cloak tightly, _that woman is dead_ , Aurelia tells herself, _she can't hurt you again,_ but she was right there and it felt so real. Her fear starts to dissipate but the anxiety remains. She looks at the Weasleys hesitantly and they're all staring at her with concerned and confused expressions.

Ginny waves her hand in front of Aurelia's face "Hello? I said "Do you got a wand?", well do you?"

This startles Aurelia and she buries her face into Mae's cloak. She feels as though she's just woken up from a deep sleep filled with nightmares, Aurelia is so tired, she leans into Mae's side almost too tired to stand on her own, her legs are shaking as badly as her heart is pounding in her chest.

"Ginny, don't do that, leave the poor girl be," Molly scolds.

Ginny huffs, not understanding the situation.

"No, she ain't got a wand, not yet at least. We were just headin' to Ollivander's when I spotted you lot, thought I'd come say hi." Mae says, rubbing circles on Aurelia's back.

"How nice of you, Mae," Molly says coolly.

Mae grows tense but she smiles nevertheless "It's always nice to see you, Molls and the kids, o' course. Well, Aurelia's very excited to get her wand and I best not keep her waitin'."

They say their goodbyes and Ginny even hugs her, with that Mae steers Aurelia away from the Weasleys.

"Mae, is . . . Is there something wrong with me . . . That — that thing happened to me again," Aurelia whimpers.

Mae bends down to her eye level "There's nothin' wrong with you, Asterope Aurelia Malfoy, you went through a very traumatic ordeal and your still healing —"

"It's been two years!"

"You almost died, that's not something you get over quickly, Aurelia —"

"I want to get my wand now," Aurelia says simply but firmly.

Mae sighs as Aurelia gives her a blank stare "Asterope . . . Darling, are you sure you don't want to go home we can do this another day, I know you must be tired —"

"No, I'm fine," Aurelia says indignantly even though she was far from fine and she wanted to crawl right back into bed, "I want to get my wand . . . And maybe, some ice cream after."

Mae laughs lightly "Alright, wee moon, let's go get your wand . . . As for ice cream, I think I can do something better than that."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see, my darling donum vitae," Mae says, flashing Aurelia a mischievous smile.

* * *

****

* * *

**OLLIVANDER'S IS BUSY** when they arrive, there's about five kids in there and three of them take about twenty minutes each getting their wands. One hits Aurelia right in the face with an empty wand box but she's cute so Aurelia lets it go and the last one sets Ollivander's eyebrows on fire. Three times. Even with the right wand.

Finally, it's Aurelia's turn.

"Hello, Mr. Ollivander." She greets politely.

He studies her for a moment, glancing at Mae before he speaks: "Ah, Miss. Malfoy, here for your wand I see. . ."

He disappears into the back of the shop, Aurelia can hear him muttering to himself as he rummages through the shelves. She's always had good hearing but after that incident, it has gotten better. Aurelia glances around the shop, Mae is doing the same thing only she seems to be more excited.

There's a wand on the front desk that captivates her attention, she moves closer to inspect it. Aurelia notes that it's made of Cypress wood, she can tell just by looking at it, Cypress trees are her favourite. Her favourite artist, Vincent Van Gogh had painted them a lot and she paints them a lot to, Vincent Van Grow, her tree, is her always her model.

Mr. Ollivander is still rummaging around so she grabs the box and reads the label.

**_Cypress Wood, Thestral Hair Core, 12 in._ **

She didn't think that she'd ever find a wand made out of Thestral hair here. She had once read that they are used more in the wands in far off places. She knows that there's a wand-maker named, Xiang Yuhan, who is famous for using Thestral hair for his wands, they took what other wand-makers thought impossible and made it look effortless.

Aurelia picks up the wand and it's lighter than she expects. It feels right, the wand fits perfectly in her hand. So, she gives it a wave like she's seen her mum and dad do some many times before and little stars and moons burst from the tip of the wand. She thinks she's found her wand, Aurelia looks at Mae who is beaming with pride.

"Mr. Ollivander, sir," Aurelia calls out, "I think I've found my wand."

He reappears a few seconds later holding quite a few wand boxes, he looks surprised as he asks: "Have you, Miss. Malfoy."

"I think so," Aurelia nods.

"Hmmm, that is most surprising indeed, you pegged me as the type witch a wand would have difficulty choosing," He says.

She narrows her eyes. Is that an insult? She wonders, it sounds like an insult, in fact it sounds like the worst insult a wand-maker can say to someone.

"No matter, no matter . . . Tell me, Miss. Malfoy, what wand has chosen you?"

She sheepishly presents the wand to him. The realisation that she had touched something without permission is only hitting her now.

"That is quite surprising, Miss. Malfoy. I've had that wand for over a century now, it was created by my great, great grandmother, she had been quite proud of that wand, Thestral hair is one if not the most difficult to use in wand-making. When I was a young boy she often told me that the hair came from the very Thestral in the tale of the Unicorn and the Thestral tale."

Aurelia's eyes light up, she knows that tale off by heart. Her mum and dad read that to her and Draco all the time, it's their favourite bedtime story.

"Whoa!"

Mr. Ollivander grabs another display box "She made a wand with the hair from the Unicorn but she told me that the Unicorn hair wouldn't cooperate with the Cypress wood for reasons she couldn't understand so she used Cherry wood. Your wand here gave her a hard time and for decades she was nervous to put up for sale and when she did most people refused to even try it because of its core."

"Thestrals ain't that bad," Aurelia says softly, "They're just misunderstood and weird looking."

Mr. Ollivander gives her a weird look but nods his head, she hands him the money for the wand and leaves with Mae.

"I wonder what kind of wand Draco's gonna get," Mae says to Aurelia.

She shrugs her shoulders, studying her wand "M'not sure, probably something boring."

Mae laughs and shakes her head "you seem real impressed with that wand of yers, wee moon."

"Oh, I am," Aurelia says, "I think Draco should be at Madam Maulkin's right now, can we go there . . . I wanna rub it in his face that my wand is cooler than his is!"

"I don't think he's got his wand yet, wee moon," Mae says.

"So, why would that stop me from bragging about my wand?"

"What if his wand ends up being cooler than yours?"

Aurelia snorts "As if. . . So, can we!"

"We can. . ." Mae says, she then points at the Magical Menagerie, ". . . Or we could get you that cat you've always wanted.

Aurelia stops walking to gape at Mae "But — but — but dad said I ain't allowed to have a pet!"

"Well, I say that you can because you deserve one," Mae argues, "It's not like he has to take care of it, it'll be with you at Hogwarts for most of the year."

"You could get in trouble for going against his wishes," Aurelia says fearfully, she doesn't want to lose Mae.

"I won't get in trouble, your mum says you can get a cat, she knows you've wanted a cat for years now so she agrees with me. If your dad as anythin' to say against it, he'll have to deal with her. Merlin have mercy on him if he does."

"Oh," Aurelia mumbles, smiling "I can get a cat? I can actually get a cat?!"

"Yes, wee moon, you can get a cat," Mae replies, smiling.

Aurelia squeals excitedly and runs towards the Magical Menagerie. Mae follows after her, she doesn't have the heart to scold Aurelia for running off. This is the happiest she's been in a long time.

Aurelia pushes her way through the door of the shop and begins to look for the cat she wants. It doesn't take her long to find the one she wants. Mae comes to rest at her side and Aurelia points at the little kitten she wants so badly.

"That one, Mae. I want that one," Aurelia says firmly.

It's a black cat, _oh the irony_ , Mae blinks at it shocked. She wonders if Aurelia can remember that as the little cat looks exactly like her.

"Can I have it, please, Mae, please!"

"Of course, wee moon, why don't you go find the owner and ask her to let the cat out," Mae says offhandedly as she stares down the tiny cat. Aurelia nods eagerly and turns on her heel to go and find the owner.

Once, Aurelia is out of ear shot, Delphi leans down towards the cat's cage and whispers "Is that — is that you?"

The cat stares at her with vibrant blue eyes and Mae stares right back. Sweet Merlin, she was going to have to visit Azkaban this week, wasn't she?

Aurelia comes running back a few moments later and excitedly tells Mae: "It's a boy — I'm gonna name it Freddie Purrcury!"

* * *

****

* * *

**WEEKS HAVE PASSED** since the trip to Diagon Alley, it's now the morning of September first and Aurelia Malfoy is finally going to Hogwarts. She's got her wand, she's got her little kitten who likes to sit on her shoulder instead of the cage she bought for him, she's got everything she needs for Hogwarts. Unlike her brother, who not only slept in but had forgot to finish packing the night before.

Yet, somehow he's the one getting a more affectionate goodbye. He almost made them late for the train had it not been for the fact their mum had relented and used a little magic to help him pack. Her parents seems to have forgotten this as they praised and dotted on him in that moment as Aurelia stood of to the side. They had already given her their goodbyes, her mum gave her a kiss and hug and tearful goodbye, her dad gave her a kiss on the forehead and a stiff hug. Then they tossed her aside for Draco.

Aurelia blinks away tears, as usual she's the least favourite, she's the odd one out, and she's not sure what she had done wrong to be treated this way. She turns to Mae. Even though Mae's a Squib and Aurelia shouldn't care about her, she does. More often than not, she finds herself looking to Mae for comfort instead of her parents, sometimes Aurelia feels that Mae is the only family she has next to Draco.

Mae smiles sadly at Aurelia, bending down to her eye level "I'm gonna miss you, wee moon."

Aurelia throws her arms around Mae's neck "I'm gonna miss you too, Mae!"

Mae hugs her tightly, her warm embrace is the most comforting thing Aurelia knows.

"Mae . . . What if — what if I don't get into Slytherin?" Aurelia whispers, finally asking the question that's been plaguing her mind since she had turned eleven.

"Nothin' will happen," Mae whispers back.

Aurelia shakes her head and pulls away "No. . . Maybe for Draco but — but not for me."

"Nothin' will happen, wee moon, I promise you. No matter which house your sorted into, nothin' will happen because I won't let it," Mae says firmly.

Aurelia hugs her again, Mae pats her back "Now, before you get on that train, I want to take a picture!"

For the first time in two years, Aurelia doesn't object to having her picture taken. Instead she grins brightly and nods her head.

Mae smiles, pulling a camera out of her handbag "Okay, smile!"

"I'm already smiling!" Aurelia says, striking a pose.

Mae chuckles and snaps the photo. When Aurelia hears the click of the camera, she drops her pose and skips over to Mae. Aurelia straightens out her yellow dress and buttons up the jean jacket she had gotten from her cousin, Nym, who had outgrown it. Mae smooths out Aurelia's pigtailed braids.

"Oh, you've grown so fast, wee moon!"

Aurelia turns as red as Mae's hair and for the third time hugs her "See you soon, Mae."

"Aye, wee moon . . . Do you know what to do," Mae asks softly, gesturing to the barrier.

She nods her head "Yes, I gotta run in between those two pillar things there to get to the platform. Are you gonna come with me?"

Mae frowns "No, wee moon."

Her expression is torn between disdain and longing and Aurelia realises that she never got to go on Platform 9 and 3\4 the same way Aurelia's about to. She feels bad for even asking.

"Oh, okay," Aurelia mumbles.

"I'm sorry, wee moon," Mae apologises, placing a kiss on her forehead, "you have fun at Hogwarts, make friends and behave!"

"I will, Mae!"

Then Aurelia runs through the barrier, she looks around the platform trying to spot the Weasleys but she has no such luck and so she gets on the train. Aurelia finds herself an empty compartment, she doesn't bother trying to make any friends though she wants to, she highly doubts anyone will want to be her friend. She settles into the compartment and pulls out To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to read.

On her last visit to the Tonks, about a week ago, to get a better handle on her Metamorphmagus abilities, Nym had given her the book. Nym had said that she reminds her of Scout Finch on certain occasions. Aurelia's read the book twice now, it's become her favourite, and she's not exactly sure how she's anything thing like Scout Finch. She isn't reading for very long long when a nervous looking boy comes knocking on the compartment door.

He's a plump little thing, about a foot shorter than herself, he's got light brown hair that Aurelia can just tell used to be blonde and greenish-brown eyes. He's familiar, Aurelia knows him from somewhere. The boy's round face is beet red and he looks around nervously as he stammers: "Can — Can I s — s — sit here? P — p — please, everywhere else is f — full."

Aurelia knows this can't be true, the train had only just started moving twenty minutes ago. She nods anyway, she'll feel too bad if she doesn't let him sit with her. He rushes into the compartment and takes a seat right next to her despite the open seat across from them.

"I'm N — Neville long — Longbottom," He blurts out.

She knows that name. _Well, bullocks_! Aurelia definitely knows this boy, she can't think of where she knows him from but sweet Merlin, she knows him. His face is too familiar to her. In the same way that her Aunt Bellatrix is familiar to her, she's seen the woman's face, she's got clear memories of her but Aurelia doesn't know where they came from because her mum and dad insist that Aunt Bellatrix had only around her and Draco a few times.

Neville waves his had in front of her face.

"Huh," Aurelia mumbles, blinking.

"Are — Aren't you go — gonna tell me you — your name?" Neville asks.

"Oh!" Yeah, I — I'm Asterope Malfoy but you can just call me Aurelia, it's much easier."

Neville sits up straighter and smiles "You're related to Lyra Black?"

She thinks for a moment then nods "Yeah, she's my aunt. . . I've only met her once though."

Neville grins, saying: "She's my godmum! She — she told me about you."

"Really? What did she say?"

Nothing good, Aurelia knows that for certain, Lyra hates her and she had made that the clear the first and only time they had met.

Neville's smile disappears "Oh, just — just that you'd be — be starting Hogwarts this — this year."

Aurelia nods, though she knows he's lying. Between the fact she knows her aunt wouldn't hesitate to slander her and the fact Neville's voice got slightly higher.

Changing the subject, Aurelia asks: "What's your toad's name?"

He looks down at the toad in his hands "Trevor. . . What's your cat's name?"

"Freddie," She replies, too embarrassed to tell Neville her cat's full name. She doubts he'll find it as funny as her cousin did.

"What are you reading," Neville wonders.

Aurelia's eyes light up "To Kill a Mockingbird. . ."

"Why would you want to kill a mockingbird?"

"Well, from what I've gathered, I don't think you're supposed to," Aurelia tells him and he looks at her confused.

"Then why is is called To Kill a Mockingbird?"

"I don't . . . I don't know, I've read it over and over again, I can't figure it out. I know there's a deeper meaning but I can't find it yet," Aurelia explains.

"Maybe, try reading it out loud. Uh, that's what my grandpa use to tell me when I would learn hard words. You — You might see it in a, uh, a new light," Neville suggests.

Aurelia stares at him, long and hard, he turns bright red as her green eyes burn into his skull. Then she smiles and tells him that he's brilliant, this only makes him turns even more red.

"Do you mind if I do that now?"

"No, uh, not at all. Um, go ahead," Neville says shyly, gesturing to the book with his chubby hands.

Aurelia opens the book and begins to read, her Scottish accent transitions smoothly into a southern accent as she reads the book to him. It doesn't take long for Neville to be lulled to sleep with her very soothing and very impressive southern accent, his head rests upon her shoulder. She's very worried that he might drool on her but she's even more worried about waking him up. Aurelia falls asleep shortly after him, her head comes to rest upon his head and his hair is very fluffy. Between, the rhythmic sounds of the moving train and the fact that Aurelia had been having trouble sleeping the last couple of days, it's not long before Aurelia has fallen into a deep sleep.

Their peaceful slumber only last two hours as Aurelia has a nightmare and wakes up screaming. She had been hoping to catch a break as she's had nothing but nightmare for the past week. Aurelia falls off the seat, trying to get away from the werewolf chasing after her. Her head slams against the opposite row of seats and her vision goes blurry as pain radiates in her skull. Neville's form is dark and huge as he looms over her — the _werewolf, no no no — wake up, already! This is a dream, it has to be a dream_.

Neville leans over her and she shields her face from him, crying out for him to leave her alone.

"What — what's happened," Neville questions in a panicked voice, "You — your hair!"

Her hair has turned white with fright and in Neville's mind that has to be the reason that she's screaming, "What happened to your hair?

She feels something wet and mildly warm on her shoulder — _blood, what if this isn't a dream_? Her vision is still blurry but she can see that it's bright around her, much too bright to be that night but why does she feel the blood from her wounds. Aurelia reaches up to her face, hesitantly, and feels that it's completely dry and she doesn't even feel her scars.

 _Drool_ , she realises as Neville asks if she's alright in a very panicked tone, he had drooled on her. She's much to relieved that it's not blood to be mad at him still, she mumbles: "You drool when you sleep."

"Oh, s — s — sorry, is — is that why you're screaming?"

"No, I had a, um, I had a nightmare," Aurelia mumbles again.

"Oh . . . Are you alright?"

She nods, he helps her off the ground and back onto the seat.

"Well, uh, what about you — your hair, it — it's white" Neville says and Aurelia's glad that he didn't ask about her nightmare.

"Oh, yeah. . . It does that sometimes. . . I'm a Metamorphmagus."

"You're a what?"

"A — a — a Metamorphmagus. . . They can —"

"I know what they are, they're rare! I've never met one before. Lyra said that her one niece, Nymph — Nymphadora was a Metamorphmagus. I think that's so cool!"

She blushes at indirectly being called cool. Suddenly his eyes widen in horror as he looks wildly around their compartment.

"Oh, no! I — I've lost Trevor again!"

His toad must've hopped out of the compartment while they slept. Neville looks close to tears and Aurelia feels so bad for him.

"Don't worry, we'll find him! We can look for him, I can go one way and you can go the other. Trevor can't have gone far . . . How does that sound?"

"No, you don't have to Ari," Neville says and his lower lip quivers as he looks anxiously around the compartment again .

"Well, I want to," Aurelia says pausing at the strangeness of the nickname he had given her. Aurelia had been given a lot of nicknames because it was always easier than Asterope but she never heard a nickname like that. Remembering there's a toad at large, she composes herself and says: "So, I'm going to! I can go this way and you can go that way."

He relents easily, Neville sniffles and nods his head. So, they split up in search of Neville's lost toad.

* * *

****

* * *

**DURING HER QUEST** for Trevor, Aurelia finds many things but he's not one of them. She finds a very mean Hufflepuff who compares her to her imprisoned Aunt Bellatrix, she finds the Boy-Who-Lived sitting with Ron Weasley, both of whom had already been asked by two other people about a toad. Aurelia finds another first year who offers her a seat in the compartment, she's wearing a Queen shirt and Aurelia knows that she'll have to befriend her at one point, for Nym's sake at least.

It seems that Neville had no such luck finding Trevor either. They reunite at Hogsmeade station when the train comes to a stop. Neville is empty-handed and distraught.

"Don't worry, he'll turn up eventually," Aurelia reassures him.

A giant man that Aurelia knows to be Hagrid calls over all the first years. Neville doesn't move an inch, clearly terrified by him. Aurelia grabs Neville's hand and leads him over with all the other first years.

"Don't worry, Neville! Hagrid's harmless, my cousin told me so," Aurelia tells Neville who nods.

"I — I know." He mumbles, his godmother works at Hogwarts as the Muggle Studies teacher, he knows a lot about the staff and he knows that Hagrid's really nice but he's still scared of him. Hagrid leads the first years to a bunch of boats.

Aurelia pales at the sight of them, she internally screams at the lake before her. Oh, bloody hell! She hates water, she always has. It's been that way for as long as she can remember. Neville gets into the boat cautiously, afraid that he might tip it over. Aurelia still hasn't moved a muscle, so he gets out and helps her in. She sits down, clutching the side of the boat for dear life as Neville takes a spot next to her.

Two other girls take a seat in the boat.

"Are you alright," Neville wonders.

She swallows thickly "Don't laugh, but . . . I'm afraid of water."

"Can't you swim," One of the girls asks.

Aurelia looks at her nervously before replying: "I can swim but water still scares me."

The girl nods, playing with one of her blonde pigtails "I don't blame you, I can't even see the bottom — I'm Hannah, by the way! Hannah Abbott."

"I'm Asterope Malfoy, but, please — please call me, Aurelia . . . Or like literally anything else."

Hannah turns Neville, her pink face getting even pinker as she asks: "And you are?"

"Neville Longbottom," Neville whispers.

"I'm Olivia!" The other girl blurts out, "Olivia Newton and, yes, my mother knew exactly what she was doing when she named me."

The three share a confused look, they don't understand what Olivia meant by that. But, Aurelia recognises Olivia as the one who had been wearing that Queen shirt on the train.

"I'm a Muggle-Born," Olivia says brightly than flinches.

While, Neville and Hannah show no signs of prejudice, Aurelia does though she doesn't mean to. Aurelia doesn't quite believe that Muggles and Muggle-Borns are below her to the extent that her parents do. In fact, she hardly believes it anymore, she did once but that had been before she had met her Uncle Ted. Still, it's a habit of hers to move away or frown at them when she sees one. Realising how rude that had been, Aurelia mutters an apology and leans into Neville. Olivia's no longer phased by her reaction as she continues to ramble on, excitedly. Olivia's no longer phased by her reaction as she continues to ramble on, excitedly.

"How much do you know about Hogwarts? I tried to read it but that was too boring for me! I couldn't sit through even a few pages of Hogwarts: a History. My dad's a History professor and I love history but the books are always so boring, he tried to read it to me but I got distracted. I did happen to hear that there's a talking hat that places us into different house, or something like that — how do you think that works, what does that mean?"

Aurelia knows the answer to this but she's too embarrassed to speak.

"Yeah." Neville whispers, "My — my godmum works at Hogwarts . . . There's a Sorting Hat that will sort you into the different Hogwarts Houses."

"Whoa! What are the houses?" Olivia gasps.

"Well, there's Gryffindor for the brave, there's Slytherin for the ambitious, Raveclaw for the creative and wise, and Hufflepuff for the loyal. At least, that's how my godmum explained it to me."

Aurelia almost sighs in relief. She's plenty of ambitious, so she's got a good chance of being sorted into Slytherin.

"What house are y'all hoping to get into," Olivia asks them giddily.

"Hufflepuff," Hannah answers proudly, "Most of my family has been in that house!"

"My parents were in Gryffindor and I want to — to be in there as well but I — I don't think I'm brave enough."

Suddenly it hits Aurelia, she knows Neville because of her Aunt Bellatrix. She tortured the Longbottoms, Alice and Frank, both of whom had been Gryffindors. That's why Aunt Bellatrix is in Azkaban now. Neville's parents are in St. Mungo's because of her aunt and he must know this because he knows Lyra and there's no way one can't tell she's related to Bellatrix. _Oh, bloody hell_!

Aurelia frowns "That's not true, I think you're loads of brave! You wouldn't have sat with me if you weren't!"

"What's that got to do with —" Olivia goes to ask but she's interrupted by Hannah.

"Oh, look! Isn't it beautiful," Hannah exclaims excitedly.

In the distance, Hogwarts can be seen. It's much larger than Aurelia expects. Much larger than Almerry Castle, which is the largest building Aurelia had seen prior to this.

"Wow," Olivia gasps breathless, her dark brown eyes alight with excitement and wonder.

Soon they arrive on the castle grounds, Hannah helps Aurelia out of the boat along with Neville, Olivia gets out of the boat just fine despite bouncing around excitedly.

"Oi, you there, is this your toad," Hagrid asks after he checked the boat Neville had just left.

"Trevor," Neville cries blissfully, grabbing his toad from Hagrid.

Then Hagrid leads them up a passage way towards the castle. The closer they get to the castle, the more nervous Aurelia gets. She glances at Neville to see that he looks deeply saddened.

"Hey, Neville?" She questions, "Why so blue?"

Neville looks up and raises an eyebrow "That's green."

Aurelia turns red, grabbing a handful of her hair. It is indeed green. Aurelia's not surprised by this, whenever she tries to make her a certain colour she usually gets it wrong; she's hopeless.

"Oh, well . . . In that case, just ignore my joke completely!" Aurelia laughs nervously.

Neville doesn't laugh and she worries that she's ruined any chance of friendship with him. He walks ahead of her and fear bubbles in the pit of her stomach. She matches his pace with ease, Aurelia bites her lip as she tries to think of a good ice-breaker. 'I fought a werewolf!' comes to mind multiple times like Draco encouraged she use but she'd rather not tell anyone about the ugly scars on her face just yet.

Neville turns to her "Do — do you hate Muggle-Borns?"

Aurelia stiffens.

Lyra had told him to expect this but he's still disappointed by it nevertheless, he frowns "I — I saw how you reacted to — to that girl on the boat. . . If — if you —"

"I don't hate Muggle-Borns!" Aurelia says.

She's not sure why but she wants to be his friend so desperately.

"You don't?"

"No, I don't — I don't know," Aurelia starts to cry, "I don't know what I think," Aurelia hugs herself. She just wants friends even if those friends go against what she's supposed to believe.

"I don't hate them," She says firmly.

Neville nods and they continue their way up to Hogwarts. The group of first years soon arrive at the castle door, Hagrid knocks of the door and it swings open at once. A tall, strict-looking, black-haired witch stands in the doorway. From beside her, she hears Neville gulp loudly and she turns to him, he looks very intimidated by the witch.

"That's Professor McGonagall." Aurelia whispers in his ear, "Nym tells me she's the bee's knees."

Neville snorts quietly as Hagrid exchanges a few words with Professor McGonagall.

"Bee's knees," Neville questions quietly, "Who even say — says that?"

Professor McGonagall beckons the first years inside.

"I do! All the time, it's fun to say," Aurelia gasps, pretending to be offended.

Neville giggles and she gives him a pointed look.

"Okay, okay . . . It's a little fun to say," He relents.

"It's a lot of fun to say!" Aurelia says, grinning.

Professor McGonagall leads them through the Entrance Hall to a small chamber just off the side.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," She says, "The Start-Of-Term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

Aurelia shares a look with Neville, if she can't get into Slytherin then she hope she gets into Gryffindor — she just knows that he's going to be a Gryffindor — with him. Although, Aurelia doesn't think she has the qualities of a Gryffindor.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Professor McGonagall's gaze lingers on Neville's cloak which is fastened under his left ear "I shall return when we are ready for you."

She leaves the chamber and Aurelia suddenly feels sick to her stomach. Every Malfoy ever has been sorted into Slytherin, that's where she must go. Her dad, shortly after the twins had received their Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, had sat them down to answer their questions about Hogwarts. At one point, he had looked at them with that steely gaze of his and said: "You'll be in Slytherin, I know that for certain." which in Aurelia's mind, roughly translated to: "It's Slytherin or bust, kids."

Aurelia is distracted from her thoughts by startled screams of the other first years. Neville grabs onto Aurelia's hand, letting out a frightful gasp. She looks up to see multiple ghosts floating by, she's not that surprised by this has Nym had told her all about them. Neville lets go of of her hand, turning red as he stammers out an apology. She shrugs it off with a smile and proceeds to fix his cloak.

"Hope to see you all in Hufflepuff, that was my old house, you know," Aurelia hears one of the ghosts say.

"Move along. The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." Professor McGonagall commands upon returning to the chamber, "Now, form a line and follow me."

Aurelia's hair turns a vibrant white with a green hue, she feels sick. Nevertheless, she does as she's told and gets in line behind Neville.

The group of first years enter the great hall, Aurelia's too nervous to be in awe of it like most of the other first years are. Aurelia spots the Weasley twins sitting at the Gryffindor table and they seem to have spotted her as well as they give her a thumbs up, in between the pair of them sits Elias Black even though he shouldn't be as he's a Slytherin, he too is giving Aurelia a thumbs up.

They come to a stop, the Sorting is about to begin. Aurelia doesn't want to disappoint her parents. Not again. In front of her, Neville is dealing with the same fear. He wants to be in Gryffindor but he thinks it might be easier and better if he's sorted into Hufflepuff.

Without thinking, Neville grabs Aurelia's hand. Although, he's wary of her because of the things Lyra had told him about her, he can't help but find comfort in her. There's something about her that's oddly familiar, he can't put his finger on it but he feels as though they're meant to be friends. When Aurelia squeezes his hand, he realises what he has done and quickly pulls his hand away.

He goes to apologise but he falls silent as the Sorting Hat starts singing its' song. The whole hall bursts into applause when the Sorting Hat finishes singing. It bows to each of the four tables and becomes still again.

"I'm sorry that I keep grabbing your hand," Neville apologises.

Professor McGonagall steps forward, holding a long roll of parchment and announces: "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

Professor McGonagall clears her throat "Abbott, Hannah!"

Hannah stumbles out of line, puts on the hat, which falls right down over her eyes, and sits down on the stool. A moments pause and then the hat shouts: "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Aurelia claps her hands for the blonde than holds one out for Neville to hold "Don't apologise, it really doesn't bother me, you call hold my hand all you want . . . You have soft skin by the way."

Neville's eyebrows scrunch together as he peers at her, confused "Th — th — thank you?"

"You're welcome." Aurelia says softly.

They hold hands until Neville gets called up, as she expects he gets sorted into Gryffindor.

She claps for him but she's quickly stopped by Draco.

"What are you doing?" He hisses.

"Clapping for my friend." She replies, frowning.

"He's a Longbottom! You can't be friends with him!" He tells her, shaking his head.

"Why not?"

He gives her an incredulous look "You know why!"

"I — oh."

"L — Malfoy, Asterope." Professor McGonagall calls out.

She swallows thickly and puts on her best Malfoy facade and struts up to the stool. Before she takes a seat, she catches her aunt's hateful glare from the staff table. Aurelia's false confidence almost wilts right then and there but she does her best to give Aunt Lyra a smug grin. Once she sits down, the Sorting Hat is placed on her head.

" _A Black, huh? It's certainly been awhile since I've sorted one of you. You're just like your mother_."

Aurelia just barely represses the urge to turn to Aunt Lyra and stick out her tongue. The woman had told her that she's just like her Aunt Bellatrix more than her mother.

" _However, Slytherin is not the house for you_."

 _Uh, excuse me Mr. Sorting Hat but what the bloody hell do you mean Slytherin isn't for me? I have to be in Slytherin_!

The Sorting Hat chuckles " _While you have a few Slytherin traits, they aren't your strongest. You're more hard-working than you are ambitious, you're more fair than you are cunning, you're not the most patient person, neither was your mother... Just like her, your strongest trait is loyalty. You value loyalty over all your traits which is what makes Hufflepuff the perfect house for you. Hufflepuff will help you grow into the talented witch you are meant to be._ "

 _No_ , Aurelia thinks, _I can't be in Hufflepuff! Put me in Slytherin, Mr. Sorting Hat_! Everyone in her bloody family save for Sirius Black and Nym, had been in Slytherin. _Put me in Slytherin_.

" _The man you once called father wasn't in Slytherin. I'm surprised to see who he is but he most definitely wasn't a Slytherin_."

_What do you —_

" _Contrary to your creation, Miss. Black, you are meant to fix things. Always remember that_ —"

_I don't give a bloody damn what I'm meant to do because I won't be able to fix my reputation if you don't put me in —_

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Aurelia almost screams.

They'll never forgive her for this.

From behind her, she hears Aunt Lyra choke on her wine: "What?!"

She's a disappointment, she's a failure. She's the odd one out as usual.

Professor McGonagall places her hand on Aurelia's shoulder "Miss. L — Malfoy, you must take your seat at your house table now."

Aurelia nods her head, blinking away tears. She steps off the stool and stumbles over to the table.

"Malfoy, Draco!"

The Sorting Hat shouts: "SLYTHERIN!" without hesitation.

Of course, it's always just her that ends up in these situations, she certain now that the whole bloody world must hate her. She thinks it's terribly unfair that no matter how hard she tries to be a Malfoy even though she doesn't like what they like, she's always treated second best. Any chance of being the golden child has just been thrown out the window all thanks to a stupid, singing/talking hat! She'll forever be the odd one out — what kind of Malfoy gets sorted into Hufflepuff?! How can she be that much of a failure?

Aurelia begrudgingly takes a seat at the Hufflepuff table.

"Hello," A bronze-haired teen greets her, "Welcome to Hufflepuff, I'm Cedric Diggory — oh! You're crying."

Aurelia nods her head, letting out a pitiful whine "I'm not su — su — supposed to be in Hufflepuff!"

"Well, the Sorting Hat is never wrong . . . Honestly, Hufflepuff isn't that bad of a house, I swear to you, you'll make lots of friends and good memories here."

"I know my cousin was in this house but — but I can't be in it. My parents will — will be so — so mad, they might e — even kick me out!"

Cedric pulls her into a one-armed hug which surprises her "Well, here in Hufflepuff we're one big family, so if that happens, I'll be your new mother."

"Wh —"

"Shhh, I'll be your new mother now . . . We Hufflepuffs have got your back now, we'll be your family if you need one."

"Listen, I appreciate the offer," Aurelia says in a quivering voice, "But, if push comes to shove I've got Blood-Traitor aunt to be adopted by so some bronze-haired teen ain't going to be my first choice."

"Ha, I knew my hair wasn't red," Cedric says victoriously, "Hattersley can suck it."

He says that to himself, Aurelia looks at him confused then looks away as a quiet sob escapes her throat, Cedric's victorious mood dies instantly as gives her another one-armed hug. Aurelia squirms uncomfortably not used to being hugged by strangers.

"Hey, psst, hey. Down here," Ellie's voice startles both of them, "Down here, Goldilocks."

Aurelia looks down to see Elias Black hiding under the Ravenclaw table "What are you —"

"Congrats on Hufflepuff, Goldilocks," Ellie says with a wide grin, "Eugene owns me a galleon."

"But, Hufflepuff, it's not very Malfoy-like of me," Aurelia tells him, flashing him a bittersweet smile and in return he gives her a lopsided grin.

"Nothing about you is very Malfoy-like," Ellie counters, "You broke a chain, so what. You'll be fine, Goldilocks and 'sides yellow looks good on you."

With that, Ellie turns and heads back to the Gryffindor table, complaining loudly about the other students kicking him as he crawls under the tables. Cedric Diggory looks utterly perplexed as and Aurelia looks down at her tie which is now yellow and finds herself agreeing with her cousin, she does look good in yellow.

Aurelia takes a deep breath, she's done trying to be a Malfoy. She dries her eyes and decides that she wants to be more like her Aunt Andromeda, care-free, happy, and most importantly loved. The Muggle-Born from the boat, Olivia Newton sits down next to her and Aurelia decides she's going to apologise and befriend her; the most not Malfoy-like thing she can do. Tapping the tan girl on the shoulder, Aurelia smiles brightly as she says:

"Hi, I'm Aurelia Black . . ."

* * *

* * *

book **two** of the **rise of a sun/fall of a star** series

post prisoner of azkaban ── post deathly hallows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AURELIA IS BACK BABY!! I know I've rewritten her story so many times and y'all are probably SO tired of it BUT I swear to you now that I will not rewrite it again, I swear on the fifty-six chapters I have prewritten! This is the last rewrite of Aurelia's story and I am going to finish it to the end. Since I've spent the last month editing and prewriting this story I will have consistent updates that will probably happen once a week, occasionally I might post twice a week because I have the first act of this book, finished, and edited but I do not want to spam update the chapters because one hardly anyone reads spam updates and it's overwhelming to both me and the readers! 
> 
> I know y'all are probably so annoyed with how many times I've rewritten this story and I totally understand why but I can't help it, I am never satisfied with what I write and I always lose inspiration but I've decided to use the blue print of the original Make Them Gold because I had the most fun writing that one and inspiration came easily to me but I'm spicing it up because one I wrote it in 2016 and I was the worst back then and two, it needs more angst and also Aurelia not knowing who she is because for some reason I really enjoy the versions where Aurelia spends most of the book not knowing who her real parents are and then finding out in the worst way possible, I think that's my emotional support plot because I always, without fail, come back to it. ALSO MAE'S BACK, BABY!! I missed my mother bear Squib so much, any version of Make Them Gold felt wrong without her and now that I brought her back, I actually want to write for this story again! So yeah, enjoy the new/old rewrite of Make Them Gold, it's wild, folks, so buckle up!!
> 
> ━━ WARNING: This book deals with topics such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, dissociation, mentions of abuse, mentions of suicidal thoughts and destructive behavior, sexual assault, canon-typical violence and discussions of Sexuality, LGBT+ relationships (Bisexuality, Homosexuality, GirlxGirl, BoyxBoy, etc...) and LGBT themes and they are a big part of this book so if any of these things trigger or bother you, please be careful reading this book!
> 
> originally started: March, 22nd, 2016  
> rewrite started: August, 7th, 2020  
> originally published: April 24th, 2016  
> rewrite published: October, 2nd, 2020  
> finished: to be decided
> 
> [ chapter title cards made by me ]


	2. VOLUME I: Eye of the Hurricane

****

**MAKE THEM GOLD, ACT ONE**  
 **(** _volume one ─── nineteen-nine-four - five_ **)**  
 **THIS IS THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE** **_!_ **

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**THE FIRST THREE** years at Hogwarts had kinda sucked for Aurelia Malfoy, now being referred to as Aurelia Black because she had been mutually disowned from from the Malfoy family **(** mutual or not it still hurt **)** but she wouldn't say they were absolutely dreadful. She had made friends, made a decent reputation for herself **(** she was finally the golden girl (well, as close as you can get to being a Golden Girl™ coming from the most noble and ancient house of Black **)** so the Malfoys can suck it! **)** , and she had found her soulmate in the form of Neville Longbottom **(** she's not sure if they're just platonic soulmates or something more but she's a bloody sap and their friendship was perfect so they're soulmates **)**. So, really, her one complaint is that she has never gotten a peaceful year at Hogwarts.

Her first year involved her accidentally hit Lord Voldemort in the face with her history textbook, at the time she thought it was their DADA professor and she was aiming for somebody else. Of course, if she had know that it was Lord Voldemort on the back of his head, she would've definitely hit him on purpose ──── so maybe she didn't deserve a peaceful year at Hogwarts with that mindset. In her second year, she got petrified by a basilisk, which just made her hate snakes even more. And then in her third year which is just ending, she had jumped in front of a Dementor to save Harry Potter's ass, and then she had found out that her DADA professor turned out to be a bloody werewolf. Needless to say, her three years at Hogwarts had been very eventful and she has a horrible feeling that her fourth year will be no different.

When Maeve Macleod, her legal guardian that knows all the hot gossip at Hogwarts, lets it slip that the Triwizard Tournament is coming back and it's coming to Hogwarts, Aurelia knows something terrible is doomed to happen. Especially with Harry Potter in attendance but she doesn't expect herself to be caught up in this tournament of imminent death because she's just plain old Aurelia Black . . . Isn't she?

But what she doesn't know, is that things are changing, something wicked is coming her way. A storm is brewing, tensions are building, and standing at the middle of it all is Aurelia. The Triwizard Tournament had been the calm before the storm, as dangerous as it had been and the eye of the hurricane reveals itself to be a truth that's been hidden for thirteen years ──── Aurelia Black isn't Asterope Aurelia Malfoy, no, she's who she dreaded to be. And she is the hurricane.  
  
  
  


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**MAKE THEM GOLD, ACT ONE**  
 **(** goblet of fire ─── year four **)**  
 **I WROTE MY WAY TO REVOLUTION** ** _!_**


	3. Furry Little Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black learns that her family may not be as bad as they seem and also makes a few bad puns . . .

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**CHAPTER ONE** :

 **001 ||** Furry Little Problems

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**SHE DOESN'T KNOW** what sets it off, she had known all morning, the whispers of Professor Lupin being a werewolf had followed her around all morning. The older students that knew about her werewolf attack had given her leering smiles and some had even howled at her much to Neville and her other friend's confusion. Aurelia told herself that she would still treat Professor Lupin the same because he was just too kind, and not just to her but to everyone. But, somehow she still saw _her_. That werewolf that attacked her.

She had just been entering the Great Hall and Lupin had just been leaving, he bumped into her and it knocked her off of her feet because she more like a feather than a person, and somebody had howled — probably Bulstrode, she's a petty bitch who was still pissed about that chess game — and suddenly she felt like she was there again.

Her breath catches in her throat and her eyes widen in horror and she chokes out: "W — w — werewolf."

The fear in Aurelia's eyes breaks Professor Lupin's heart "Miss. Black, I'm —"

"No! Get — Get a — away from me," She exclaims, stumbling backwards.

Most of the students in the Great Hall have abandoned their breakfast to either gawk at their Professor who happens to be a werewolf or watch the drama unfolding before them. Some had even gone as far to howl at _him_ which had put Aurelia further on edge — she can't stand the sound of howling.

Tears blur her vision, she doesn't see Professor Lupin but that werewolf who attacked her. That ecstatic blonde-haired woman with the dishevelled hair and the mad glint in her eyes invades Aurelia's mind and it's just like she's back in that forest.

"Get — Get away from me, werewolf," She exclaims.

From behind her, Neville gasps in surprise. Dean and Seamus share looks of disappointment. This is the most Malfoy thing she's ever done since like ever.

The crunch of the leaves, the painful cries of the woman as she transforms is all Aurelia can hear. Aurelia trips over her own two feet trying to get away from Professor Lupin who in Aurelia's mind isn't really Professor Lupin.

He bends down, speaking softly: "Miss. Black, you are safe, you are at Hogwarts. You are not in danger."

She squeezes her eyes shut, the woman's getting closer.

"Miss. Black, listen to me . . . You are not in danger."

She's getting even closer, Aurelia can hear her pained breathing clearly, she can hear the shifting of her bones as she transforms into a werewolf.

Draco pushes his way through the gathering crowd and leans next to her "Lia? Asterope, come on."

Aurelia pays no attention to him, her eyes are focused on something just behind Professor Lupin.

She's right in front of her. Nobody else is freaking out, _why aren't they freaking out_? There's a woman about to turn into a werewolf and she's so close Aurelia can feel her breathing on her face. Aurelia whimpers as the werewolf opens her jaws and —

"Asterope, it's okay, you're in Hogwarts," Draco says quietly.

The werewolf raises her paw but she doesn't strike Aurelia. Draco shakes Aurelia earning a scolding remark from Professor Lupin. He glares at the professor then turns back to Aurelia "C'mon, Asterope! Oh, for Merlin's sake, snap out of it!"

Aurelia whines and tries to move away from the werewolf but something is holding her in her place. She struggles in Draco's hold. Neville realises something very wrong is happening to Aurelia, it's not what he thinks. He leans down next to her and asks: "Ari, are you al —"

"Stay out of this, Longbottom," Draco snarls, pushing him away from Aurelia.

He turns back to her, "Seriously, Lia, it's not real . . . Here!"

Draco remembers the tricks his father had used on her, they had worked most of the time, he pulls his wand from his pocket, saying: "Orchideous!" and a bouquet of brightly coloured flowers burst from the tip of his wand and he holds them in out in front of Aurelia's face.

"Look at the flowers, Lia," Draco instructs but she stares right past them for a few seconds so he, impatient and with a reputation to uphold, grabs her one hands and brings them up to touch the flowers "Look at the flowers, Asterope."

Aurelia blinks, her fingers graze over the flowers and then her eyes widen. A gasp leaves her lips and she squeezes the flower petals, tearing them. She realises that she's in the Great Hall, she had never left . . . Aurelia has these moments a lot where she slips back into that moment and she thinks it's happening over again, but it's never happened at Hogwarts before. She looks around the Great Hall, her face turns bright red. Her guts twist painfully and she's overcome with dread.

"Fuck," She mutters under her breath. _Stupid, so bloody stupid_! She scolds herself. How could she possibly think that there was a werewolf there when just seconds before she had been going to eat with her friends in the Great Hall. _What the fuck is wrong with you_ , she questions internally as she gathers up the courage to look up.

She looks to Neville then to Dean and Seamus, Dean is glaring at her. Her heart races, _oh no_ , her hair turns a dull grey. She had never had one of these at Hogwarts before and none of her friends know about the werewolf that had attacked her. They probably think she's being prejudiced towards him or something. She needs to get out of here, many people are staring at her like she's some kind of freak, she needs to get away.

Professor Lupin helps her up "Come along, Miss. Black, I'll take you to see Madam Pomfrey."

Aurelia doesn't want to see Madam Pomfrey, she doesn't want to go anywhere near the hospital wing; Professor Lupin leads her out of the Great Hall.

As she exits the the Great Hall, feeling as though she's doing a walk of shame, she hears Draco snarling "What are you staring at?! Don't you have anything better to do?"

"I don't need to go to the Hospital Wing," Aurelia whines as she follows Lupin down the corridor. She keeps her head down low to avoid other passing students, it wouldn't take long for word to spread about her strange behaviour in the Great Hall which was just fantastic.

"You should for a Calming Draught," Lupin says worriedly.

"I am calm," Aurelia says and when Lupin gives her a pointed look she says, "I will be calm, and I don't need a Calming Draught. I promise."

"Well . . . I don't feel right letting you go to Hogsmeade after that . . . I wouldn't want it to happen again . . . You might need a Calming Draught if it happens again and you'd be so far away . . ." Lupin trails off and he straightens out his tie as he clears his throat, "Sorry . . . I'm overstepping and I'm not even your professor anymore . . . Sorry, I forgot."

But, Aurelia doesn't mind his concern even if it's more concern than a professor should give. It makes her feel loved, it reminds her of how her her father would act on his good days, when he wasn't acting like she was the bane of his existence; Aurelia missed that warm feeling.

"It's alright," Aurelia says, not understanding why Remus is apologising for being a good person, "I wasn't going to Hogsmeade anyway . . . Neville can't go, so I stay with him."

"That's very kind of you, Miss. Black," Lupin says giving Aurelia a warm smile, "You can get a Calming Draught from Pomfey and then you meet up with him, spend a this nice afternoon with him."

"I'd rather perish," Aurelia says bluntly.

Surprisingly, Remus laughs "You are so much like your mother."

Aurelia gives him a weird look "You knew my mum?"

Remus' eyes go wide as though he said something he shouldn't have "Well, yes — no, but — well, not well . . . I didn't know your mother well, she was much older than me but I seen her around the school halls a bit, she'd come by to scold Sirius a lot, it was . . . funny really considering she was more like him than she'd ever admit. I heard her make those comments a few times, Sirius made them all the time too . . . It must run in the family."

Aurelia knows he's joking and she should laugh but all that comes out is "Well, thank Merlin! At least insanity and psychotic breakdowns aren't the only think I'll inherit!"

There's an awkward pause where Professor Lupin stares at Aurelia with mild concern and she smiles sheepishly at him.

"Ha ha ha, that was a joke," Aurelia says with an unconvincing laugh, "I was joking, I'm totally not worried about becoming like my crazy family, it's fine! You can laugh, ha ha ha, see I'm laughing."

"It was very funny, Miss Black," Lupin says in an unconvincing voice but he smiles at her so he's not that bothered by it, "Would you care to join me in my office, we can have some tea and chocolate . . . Just until you calm down and — and only if you want to."

Sure," Aurelia beams a bit surprised that Lupin would want her around especially after how she treated him, "But, don't tell Professor Binns, he might get sad that I'm having tea with another professor."

Lupin gives her a bewildered look "You have tea with Binns?! How — how does that even work?"

"Well, it's mostly me who has the tea."  
  
  
  


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" **DO YOU HAVE** to resign," Aurelia wonders, breaking apart her chocolate bar. He had just told her that he was leaving Hogwarts now that everyone knows about his furry little problem as he had called it before quickly correcting himself. Aurelia thought it was funny, it was a strange way to refer to being a fucking vicious werewolf. In fact it made it sound like Lupin had a problem with a much smaller animal, like a cat or a bunny.

Aurelia, although terrified by the fact he's a werewolf, doesn't want him to leave. She does enjoy him as a teacher and as a person as well, she knows he can't help what he is. He has always been so kind to her, and in the past year she has come to view him as a father. That fact that he's a werewolf doesn't change much, she had just be caught off guard, werewolves still terrify her to this day. But Remus, himself, doesn't terrify her. And even if she didn't trust him like she did, she'd still get over it because Lupin was the best DADA teacher they've had since she started and she'd rather have a werewolf professor rather than another Lockhart.

Professor Lupin swallows the bite of chocolate he had been chewing and says: "I'm afraid I must, Miss. Black."

"No, sir!" She protests, "Can't you continue to teach?!"

"I don't think many parents will want a werewolf teaching their children."

"Fuck them," Aurelia says aggressively.

"Language," He scolds, glancing up from the Marauder's Map on his desk, she rolls her eyes.

"Dutch them," She rephrases her previous comment in a sarcastic tone, he gives her a dry look.

"What, you told me 'Language.' and Dutch is a language, professor," She counters, sweetly.

"I meant — never mind," He sighs and she grins victorious.

Her grin quickly turns into a frown as he places yet another thing in his trunk "Please, can't you stay? I'll give you more chocolate bars," she begs.

"You've already given me two hundred of them," Professor Lupin laughs softly as he shakes his head.

"Two hundred and seven," Aurelia corrects, "And I still have more. So, please stay?"

"This is for the best, Miss Black."

"I didn't mean to — to do . . . That," Aurelia whispers, "Please don't leave because of that . . . Please, sir."

"Miss. Black, I'm not solely leaving because of that. I know you didn't mean to do that, it's nothing you can control so please don't feel bad about it," Professor Lupin says, "I'm leaving because it will cause too many problems if I'm to stay."

"What about — what about Professor Black, you know, she'll be real sad if you leave! You have to stay, she's so much nicer when you're around!"

Lupin laughs and shakes his head "I'm sure you'll be more upset by my leaving than Lyra will be. I see Lyra nearly every other week outside of Hogwarts."

Aurelia pouts "I will be terribly sad if you leave, you wouldn't want me to cry now would you, sir? Please, pretty please stay."

Maybe, Aurelia's a little full of herself but she swears she sees Lupin almost give in, his shoulders slump and his face softens but then he says:

"I'm sorry, my dear, but I really can't."

Aurelia attempts to argue further but she's interrupted by a knock on the door, they look over their shoulders to find Harry standing in the doorway.

Harry looks surprised to see Aurelia there "Is Professor Lupin here," he wonders as he glances around the room. Professor Lupin had just ducked down to grab something.

Aurelia wonders if he had witnessed her outburst in the Great Hall. She swallows thickly, feeling panicked yet again, he might be angry with her like her friends seem to be.

"I saw you coming —" Professor Lupin begins to say as he stands up.

"Where wolf," She blurts out.

"Yes, he's a werewolf but that's not —"

"There wolf," Aurelia blurts out again, pointing at Professor Lupin.

"Miss Black, you are worse than Sirius was when he was your age," Professor Lupin groans but there's a fond smile on his scarred face.

"Ah, yes that's what every girl loves to hear, that she's just like a mass-murderer," Aurelia says sarcastically.

"Actually, Blue. Your father's innocent," Harry tells her.

She stares at him, frustration bubbling in the pit of her stomach. Sirius isn't her father. If one more person calls her 'Black's daughter' she's going to scream. Seamus Finnigan just had to go and start that joke about her being Sirius' secret daughter. Though, she reminds herself, it's still a step up from his on-going 'Aurelia's Bellatrix's daughter!' joke. Aurelia's lucky that it had been the Sirius joke that caught on and not the other.

"He's innocent?"

Harry nods "Oh, yes, Sirius is innocent. It was Peter Pettigrew that did everything Sirius was accused of. I figured since he's your dad and all, you had the right to know. And we helped him escape last night, I'm sure he'll be in contact with you soon."

"He's not my dad, Harry," Aurelia replies, still processing the fact that Sirius is innocent, someone from her family besides the Tonks had turned out good, "Although, knowing this, I kind of wish he was . . ."

"He's not?"

"No, those were just rumors that Seamus spread around to get a rise out of me, like the one where Bellabitch Leshithead was my mother, imagine if she was and Sirius was my father as well, do you know how incesty that would be?! Not that the most noble and ancient house of Black would be against it." Aurelia explains and then snorts, "Yikes, that'd be a whole bloody mess —"

"He's really not your father?"

"Nope, there's no chance at all he's my father."

A minute passes before Harry mutters "Oh," looking very confused, "Well, uh, don't tell anyone that we helped a supposed murderer escape."

"Oh, damn, that would've been a great conversation starter. Thanks for ruining my fun, Harold." Aurelia quips, "O' course I'm not going to tell anyone, why would I ever bring that up in any conversation?!"

"My name isn't, Harold!" Harry says, giving her a funny look although he doesn't know why he bothers to correct her as she never listens to him.

"It's Harold in my book," She says.

Harry sighs then turns to Professor Lupin who is watching the two teens, clearly amused.

"I just saw Hagrid," Harry says after deciding to ignore Aurelia and turn to Lupin, "And he said you'd resigned. It's not true, is it?"

"I'm afraid it is," Professor Lupin replies, opening his desk drawers and taking out the contents.

"Why," Harry asks, "The Ministry of Magic don't think you were helping Sirius, do they?"

Professor Lupin crosses over to the door and closes it behind Harry "No. Professor Dumbledore managed to convince Fudge that I was trying to save your lives. That was the final straw for Severus. I think the loss of the Order of Merlin hit him hard. So he — er — accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast."

"Accidentally," Aurelia scoffs, "Accidentally, my ass."

"You're not leaving just because of that," Harry exclaims, earning a wryly smile from the professor.

"This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents . . . They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could have bitten any of you . . . That must never happen again."

"You're the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," Harry cries, "Don't go!"

"My point exactly!" Aurelia pipes in.

Harry and Aurelia give him nearly identical pleading smiles as they look at Lupin, who regards them warily but he doesn't budge, he remains set on leaving and packing his stuff.

"From what the headmaster told me this morning, you saved a lot of lives last night, Harry. If I'm proud of anything I've done this year, it's how much you've learned . . . Tell me about your Patronus," Professor Lupin says, changing the subject which earns an annoyed huff from Aurelia.

"How d'you know about that," Harry wonders.

"What else could have driven the Dementors back,"

"You produced a Patronus, wow, that's totally wicked," Aurelia says, looking at Harry in amazement, he nods and tells the story of how he had produced his Patronus.

She had produced her Patronus too, Aurelia had learned about the spell from Maeve years ago and when Professor Lupin had offered to teach her how to conjure one after she had been attacked by the Dementors and Aurelia had eagerly accepted his help. It had taken her two attempts to conjure her Patronus and it had been a corporeal one but it had only lasted two seconds. The memory she had used to conjure it had been of her Aunt Bellatrix and the moment the realisation that her happiest memory consisted of the person who had tortured her best friend's parents, the guilt hit her hard and it had disappeared. It had been a hummingbird. Aurelia hasn't attempted to conjure her Patronus since then.

When Harry had finished his story, Professor Lupin smiles "Yes, your father was always a stag when he transformed. You guessed right... That's why we called him, Prongs." Professor Lupin tells Harry, throwing his last few books into his case, he closes the desk drawers and turns to look at Harry, "Here — I brought this from the Shrieking Shack last night," and hands Harry back his Invisibility Cloak.

"Oh, you've got a Invisibility cloak too," Aurelia asks and Harry nods, "Wow, those are super rare, my mum and dad bought me one for my eighth birthday it's the most expensive thing they've ever bought me, Draco pitched a fit because he didn't get one as well . . . I didn't think the Muggles you live with would let you keep one."

Harry laughs "They don't know about it — did Malfoy cry when you got one and he didn't?"

Aurelia laughs as well "You bloody well know he did. Sobbed, screamed and threw himself on the ground. He put on the whole show, it was quite entertaining."

"And. . ." Professor Lupin hesitates then holds out the Marauder's Map, "I am no longer your teacher, so I don't feel guilty about giving you back this as well. It's no use to me, and I daresay you, Ron, and Hermione will find uses for it."

Harry takes the the map and grins "You told me Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Foxtrot, and Prongs would've wanted to lure me out of school. . . You said they'd have thought it was funny."

"And so we would have," Professor Lupin replies, now reaching down to close his case, Aurelia's confused as to who they're talking about, "I have no hesitation in saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his son had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle."

There's a knock on the door and Harry hastily stuffs the Marauder's Map and the invisibility cloak into his pocket. It's Professor Dumbledore, he doesn't look surprised to see Harry and Aurelia there "Your carriage is at the gates, Remus," he announces.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Lupin says, picking up his old suitcase and the empty Grindylow tank.

"Well, goodbye, Harry, Aurelia," he adds and he gives the two third years a warm smile, "It has been a real pleasure teaching you. I feel sure we'll meet again some time. Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage."

"Goodbye, then, Remus." Professor Dumbledore says soberly and Professor Lupin shifts the Grindylow tank slightly so that they could shake hands.

Then, with a final nod to Harry and Aurelia, Professor Lupin leaves the office. Aurelia excuses herself shortly after, she doesn't like being around Professor Dumbledore. It's not that she doesn't dislike him per se, it's that she doesn't like the vibes he gives off. She especially doesn't like how he looks at her, it's like he knows something about her that not even she knows and it gives her the heebie-jeebies.   
  
  
  


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**NEVILLE'S WORRIED ABOUT** Aurelia he typically is. But then again, he worries about anything, whether there's reason to worry or not. Dean and Seamus suggest that her reaction is due to the fact that she still holds a little prejudice in her heart but Neville can't help but think there's something more to it than that. That hadn't been hatred in her eyes but unmistakable horror. It's rare that he sees Aurelia look so fearful and vulnerable, she's usually very confident. He tries to think up reasons as to why she had reacted the way she had.

Up until today Aurelia had adored Professor Lupin even when he made her face her Boggart despite the fact she asked him not to. He told to her to at least give it a try and if she couldn't face the — _oh_.

 _Werewolf_ , her Boggart had turned into a werewolf and Professor Lupin looked like he was ready to jump out of his skin while also looking ready to jump in between her and the Boggart. _Oh_ , Neville thinks, _now that makes sense_. He remembers that Aurelia had cried, not unusual as she cries a lot for everything, but he remembers that despite the fact she looked like she was going to faint, she had managed to fight off her Boggart. She was just so brave like that.

He turns to Dean and Seamus and exclaims: "She's afraid of werewolves! Re — remember, her Boggart's a werewolf!"

"Oh," Dean and Seamus both gasp in realisation.

The two boys are just about to head to Hogsmeade with the other students, Neville can't go because of the whole password fiasco and even if he could he much rather wait here for Aurelia to come back to the Great Hall so he can make sure she's alright.

"Well, that sure makes sense," Dean says, he no longer looks angry with Aurelia. He wonders how they forgot about that because it had been a pretty eventful day, Aurelia had been so shaken up before and after the Boggart lesson, so badly that she went to the Hospital Wing and apparently she was late for potions which earned her two detentions from Snape.

Seamus nods "Yeah, how could we forget that? . . . Are you sure you don't want us to stay behind with you, we really don't mind?"

Seamus' Irish accent is so thick and even though Neville has known him for three years, he still has trouble understanding what he says. Which is quite odd since he happens to understand Aurelia's Scottish accent perfectly.

"Do you want us to stay with you," Dean supplies, seeing the confused look on Neville's face.

"Oh! Er, no. . . I'm fine, really."

The two hesitate.

"I'm fine, I'm gonna wait for Aurelia, she'll be back soon."

Dean nods his and turns to leave with the others for Hogsmeade, while he isn't looking Seamus makes kissy faces at him until Dean comes back to grab him by the hand and drag him out of the great hall. In return Neville makes kissy faces at him while Seamus is led out of the Great Hall by Dean; Seamus flips him off.

Neville patiently waits for Aurelia to come back to the Great Hall, he knows she will because she hasn't eaten anything yet and she never misses a meal unless she's really sick; Aurelia especially doesn't skip breakfast. He busies himself with Aurelia's copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, Neville doesn't understand the book but he likes to read it because she loves it so much, though he prefers it when Aurelia does it because she reads it in a funny southern accent that makes the book far more enjoyable.

Finally, Aurelia returns to the Great Hall, she silently takes a seat across from Neville, so silent that he almost doesn't notice her.

"Oh! Ari, you — you're back," He says, putting the book down to give her his full attention.

She nods, for some reason she looks like a child that knows they're about to get the scolding of a lifetime.

"I'm sorry," She mumbles, running her hands up and down her skirt, her palms are super sweaty because what if Neville doesn't want to be her friend anymore. What if she has to tell him what happened with the werewolf years ago, she doesn't know why she hadn't told him or any of her other friends but she always got too scared to tell them if she even thought about it. Even now, her throat is closing up and her eyes are burning.

"Why are you apologising," He wonders.

"I shouldn't have done that . . . I was —"

"That's not your fault, Ari," He cuts her off, "You shouldn't apologise for that. You were just scared, you couldn't help it."

"You . . . You don't think I'm a freak," Aurelia asks as she chews on her lower lip.

Neville shakes his head vigorously "No! I would never, you're not a freak."

Aurelia sighs, relieved. She smiles at him, the last thing Aurelia would want is for Neville to think she's a freak.

"Why are you so afraid of werewolves," He asks, it had been the last things he expected her Boggart to be, he thought it might've been the fear of rejection or maybe the Malfoys.

Aurelia licks her lips nervously and shrugs her shoulders "I'm not sure, they've just always scared me."

Aurelia knows one day she's going to tell him, she's going to have to tell all of her friends at one point. She reckons, as she chews on her now bloody lip, that she can't hide the scars and the incidents she has forever. One day, she'll tell them but today is not that day.

She's lying and Aurelia never lies to him but he's noticed that when she's lied to others she licks her lips or scrunches up her little nose. Neville doesn't understand why she'd lie to him about something like this. What would there be to lie about, it's just being scared of something? This is confusing.

"What are you reading," Aurelia asks in an attempt to change the subject, picking up the book off the table.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," Neville replies, he decides not to press the matter any further in fear of upsetting Aurelia.

She smiles "Do you want me to read to you?"

He nods.

She flips open to the bookmarked page and begins to read in a southern accent: ". . . Little Chuck Little got his feet "Let him go, ma'am." he said, "He's a mean one, a hard-down mean one. . ."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aurelia reads To Kill a Mockingbird to Neville in the voices of the movie characters and that fact make my heart go 💞💗💖💕💓💘💝💓💗💘💞 god I love them!!! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> How do you think Neville's gonna react when he finds out about the werewolf attack?


	4. Sunflower Girl + Plant Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black and seamus finnigan nearly kill each other . . .

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**CHAPTER TWO** :

 **002 ||** Sunflower Girl + Plant Boy

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" **IT'S SUMMER**! **IT'S** SUMMER! IT'S SUMMER," Seamus chants obnoxiously loudly as they made their way to Hogsmeade Station. He's been chanting that the whole way, getting louder each time.

"I'm gonna kill him," Aurelia mumbles to Neville.

Neville laughs quietly as he wraps his arms around her waist, keeping her in place on his lap. He tells her: "Murder is bad, Ari."

"Not if it's justified," She whispers back, to which Neville sighs and shakes his head.

"It's summer! It's summer! It's —"

"Seamus for the love of God! Shut up," Dean yells exasperated.

Seamus falls silent, he looks Dean dead in the eyes and opens his mouth: "IT'S SUMMER — ARGH!"

"THAT'S IT," Aurelia shrieks, lunging at Seamus.

Aurelia's slender fingers are just inches shy of of Seamus' collar. Had it not been for Neville holding her back she would've been able to tackle the sandy-haired boy. She laughs at the mortified expression Seamus' face and leans back into Neville's lap.

Seamus glares at her and says: "You skinny malink!"

Aurelia narrows her eyes "You hackit dobber!"

"Quare Hawk!"

"Howlin' lavvy heid!"

"You're a right wagon!"

"And you're a scabby scrote!"

Seamus gasps dramatically giving her a wounded look "That's low, Black."

Aurelia smirks "I can go lower."

Seamus scowls, as usual Aurelia gets the last word. Neville smiles, laughing: "That's my Sunflower Girl!"

Seamus chokes on his spit "Did you just call, Black, your girl?"

Neville blushes. This nickname is his only way of showing his feelings for her without it being to obvious. And, Seamus goes and points it out.

"He always does that," Marigold 'Mari' Wilkes, Neville's neighbour and one of Aurelia's best friends, pipes in. She looks up from her sketchbook, her Ravenclaw tie splattered in orange paint, and smiles at Neville.

Dean nods in agreement "Yeah, he's called her that all year."

Olivia laughs from Mari's side, her black curls fall into her heart-shaped face as she laughs hard and loud "You're a real slow bloke, Finnigan. We all caught onto that a week into the school year."

"Actually," Aurelia cuts in, her face's redder than a Weasley's hair, "He's called me that since first year."

 _That's true_ , Neville thinks. He only found it fair that he call her Sunflower Girl since she always had some sunflower-related thing on her all the time if she had insisted on calling him Plant Boy because he likes Herbology. However, for him, the silly nickname has become so much more to him.

"Yeah, but he just started calling you 'my Sunflower Girl' this year," Mari points out.

Neville contemplates curling up and dying right there.

"Let's not forget to mention Blue calls Longbottom 'Plant Boy," Olivia adds and Mari laughs.

"That kinda sounds like a superheroe's alter-ego . . . Merlin, now I'm picturing Blue and Neville as X-Men! 'Sunflower Girl & Plant Boy: Here to Save the Planet!' . . . Blue would get along great with Wolverine," Dean says, laughing loudly.

"That is the best compliment any has ever said to me," Aurelia says, eyes wide with delight, "Wolverine is the dad I've always wanted."

"Stop avoiding the point! Neville calls Black 'my Sunflower Girl'! This is huge," Seamus exclaims, looking like a little kid in a candy store.

"I don't understand . . . What's the big deal," Aurelia questions.

Everyone even Neville groans, Aurelia stares at them, clearly confused.

"Am I missing something here?"

"No, not — nothing," Neville says quickly, "So, what are you doing this summer?"

His change of subject confuses her further. He's hiding something from her, Neville's never hid things from her before, _what's he hiding from me_? Of course, she can't get angry at him if he's hiding something from her because that'd make her a bloody hypocrite. This didn't stop her from worrying Neville's odd behaviour. She's worried that it has something to do with the Lupin incident, maybe he think she's weak for being scared of werewolves out of all things. _No_ , she thinks as she shakes her head, _no, you're just being paranoid_!

"— And as usual, Heather's being a little prissy child about the whole thing. She's not happy that we're going to the Van Gogh museum! She's threw a fit about it all through out Christmas Holidays," Mari is explaining.

"Heather's so bloody dramatic," Olivia giggles, rolling her eyes and Mari hums in agreement.

"Tell me about it," Neville says and everyone laughs. Heather had been Neville's best friend before Hogwarts and while they were still friends now because he'd never hear the end of it from his grandmother if he stopped talking to her, they weren't as close as they used to be. Mostly because of Aurelia, although it was no fault of Aurelia's.

"Dean and I are going to the Quidditch World Cup," Seamus says.

 _Oooh, like a date_! Aurelia thinks, giving Seamus a pointed look and teasing smile. Seamus despite not being an Legilimens seems to know just what she's thinking as he glares at her.

"If it weren't for the laws of this land I would've slaughtered you by now," Seamus mouths to her.

"Hey, aren't you going to the World Cup, Blue," Dean asks.

She nods "Yep! Mae, Ellie, and I are going with the Weasleys and the Diggorys, I believe!"

"What about you, Neville," Seamus asks.

"Oh, I'm grounded, I can't go . . . But, Ari did offer me a ticket if I wanted to go."

Seamus smirks "Did she n — OW!"

Aurelia kicks him, giving him a dark glare "Sod off, Finnigan!"

She's not why Seamus Finnigan had started acting like she had some sort of school girl crush on Neville but it was annoying. If anyone had a school girl crush it would be Seamus, who totally fancied Dean. Aurelia didn't fancy Neville, she was eighty percent sure of that fact, so it was annoying when anyone acted like she did. If it was anyone else, she'd lay down and take the teasing like the good sport but this was Neville Longbottom, her best friend who most certainly did not like her like that.

Seamus smiles at her innocently as he rubs his shin "What?"

Aurelia glares at him, this little Irish bitch.

"So . . . Uh, who do you think's gonna win the cup," Dean asks, hoping to defuse the tension that had seemingly come out of nowhere.

"The Irish," Seamus answers without hesitation, beaming with pride.

"The Bulgarians," Aurelia says, just to spite him.

He turns to glare at her and she smiles innocently at him. The others groan as they begin to bicker again, this continues until they reach Hogsmeade Station.

They climb out of the carriage, Aurelia pats the Thestral much to everyone else's confusion. Neville can see them but he doesn't understand how she can stomach to touch one, the others have no idea what she's doing as they can't see the Thestrals.

"What the bloody hell are you doing," Seamus asks.

Aurelia looks him dead in the eye and replies: "I'm petting the air, of course!"

Seamus gapes at her than looks to Neville for an explanation. He decides not to give Seamus one, simply saying: "You heard her."

As they climb onto the Hogwarts Express, Olivia grabs onto her "We've got a Quidditch Team meeting. Remember, the team want to discuss next year's game plan," She reminds Aurelia

"I think you mean Diggs wants to have a meeting," Aurelia groans, rolling her eyes.

The two girls are part of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, Aurelia joined as a Keeper in her second year and Olivia joined as a Beater this year. Aurelia's now the Seeker of the team, when Cedric became the captain he decided that Aurelia made a far better Seeker than he did so appointed her the new Seeker and he became the Keeper. He had said that she's much better at being Seeker than he was since she had always spotted the Snitch before anyone else. Her fantastic eyesight and quick reflexes fit the bill of a decent Seeker. Although, Aurelia thinks Cedric mostly made her Seeker because he had grown tired of her screaming "nine o' clock" or "seven o' clock" when she spotted the Snitch during the games or practice.

"The school year's over! Surely, he could've waited until September to do this," Aurelia says.

"That's what I told him the other day but the stubborn twat insisted we do it now," Olivia replies.

Aurelia groans again then looks over her shoulder, calling out: "We'll be back soon, save us a seat, will you?!"

Neville nods, smiling.

"Yeah, we'll save Newton a seat," Seamus exclaims.

"Fuck you, you little wanker!"

"Why must you tease her like this," Neville sighs.

"Because it's fun," Seamus replies, grinning.

Both Dean and Neville roll their eyes.

* * *

****

* * *

**AFTER AN HOUR** of listening Cedric go over some game plans for the next Quidditch seasons, it seemed that Heidi Macavoy had enough of it as she shoves a Chocolate Frog into his mouth.

"Oi, we get it! We need to win! Now for the love of Merlin's glorious beard please let us go and enjoy our train ride home," Heidi exclaims, fully prepared to shove another Chocolate Frog in Cedric's mouth if she had to.

"Fine, fine," Cedric grumbles although it's muffled by the Chocolate Frog.

A huge sigh of relief sweeps through the compartment and they waste no time in making a break for it. Aurelia and Olivia are the first to leave the compartment knowing full well that if he swallows enough of that Chocolate Frog in order to form a coherent sentence he'll call the meeting back on. Cedric pokes his head out of the compartment and the two girls groan.

"Please for the love of God, don't call us back," Olivia pleads.

"Make sure you practice, Blue, you've got all summer and no excuses not to," Cedric yells, at least that's what Aurelia thinks he yells, she can't really understand him because he's all but choking on a Chocolate Frog.

"Yeah, yeah I will, Diggs," Aurelia replies, waving him off.

Aurelia's going to spend most her summer playing Quidditch with Ellie, it's not like she's got to worry about Muggles spotting her or anything. There's no Muggles on Almerry Island, no Muggle has ever been able to map Almerry because of the charms hiding it. Aurelia's read all about the history Almerry Island and only five Muggles have found the island and only one of them lived to tell the tale but no one believed them so Almerry remains hidden.

As the two girls venture down the corridor looking for their friends, Olivia nudges Aurelia's shoulder.

"Sooo . . ." Olivia says in a teasing tone, a sly grin on her face.

"What are you on about now," Aurelia asks, giving Olivia an odd look.

Olivia's grin only gets wider "You mean to say you haven't noticed Neville's odd behaviour around you?"

"He's been acting odd," Aurelia questions, her tone laced with concern and anxiousness.

"Not like that, you concerned bird," Olivia laughs, nudging Aurelia's shoulder again.

"Then what do you mean," Aurelia asks, chewing on her lower lip.

"I mean, I think he very obviously likes you."

Aurelia panics, the thought of Neville actually like-liking her is just so far-fetched. He can't possibly like her as more than a friend — on most days, Aurelia thinks it's a miracle he's even her friend — especially since she looks the way that she does. Aurelia knows she's far from being ugly, in fact, minus the scars she likes to think she's rather pretty but she looks painstakingly like her aunt. The same bloody aunt who tortured Neville's parents.

"O' course he likes me! After all, we're best friends," Aurelia says quickly, trying her best to brush off the subject.

Olivia gives her a blank look "You can't be serious, Blue."

"O' course I can't be Sirius, he's my cousin," Aurelia counters, picking up her pace.

"That's not what I meant, you twat! I meant Neville like-likes you! His feelings for you are more than . . . _Plantonic_."

Aurelia turns to look at Olivia with wide brown eyes.

"Yeah, that's right! Two can play that game, Blue," Olivia teases and Aurelia rolls her eyes.

Aurelia shakes her head, she frowns and thinks that Neville most certainly doesn't like her more than a friend and that's fine because she doesn't like him like that, they just really good friends, the best of buddies.

"You fancy Neville . . . Don't you," Olivia questions.

Aurelia's face starts to burn at the assumption "What makes you say that?"

"Well you get all blushy and smiley around him. You stutter and you always hold his hand," Olivia replies.

"We've always held hands," Aurelia defends.

"Okay, okay . . . But, what about the other things?"

"What about them?"

"Good God, Blue! Do you like Neville or not?!"

Aurelia shrugs, trying to reply as calmly as possible "M'not sure, but I'll be sure to let you know when I figure it out," she gives her friend a sickly sweet smile.

"Merlin's beard, Blue, it's simple!"

 _But it's so not_ , Aurelia frowns at Olivia, Neville is her best friend and she doesn't know she feels about him, does she like him or does she like like him? Last few months had been so confusing, her heart told her one thing but her mind told her the opposite — she can't like him like that, it would complicate everything for so many reasons. Luckily, Aurelia finds the compartment their friends are sitting in before Olivia can subject her to more prying questions and Aurelia's mind can take her to a dark place.

It seems that Hannah's joined them, Auerelia's surprised to see her there as the blonde had been rather distant the past few months. Hannah sits between Mari and Neville, talking excitedly about something to the latter. She's extremely close to Neville, her hand's rested on his shoulder as she chats away. The bitter feeling of jealousy takes ahold of Aurelia; why she doesn't know. Her hair turns dark green as she stares at Hannah and Neville.

Aurelia frowns, taking a seat next to Neville. Immediately he turns his attention to Aurelia, asking: "Hey, Ari, how'd it go?"

Aurelia tears her gaze away from Hannah who looks more than annoyed by the fact Neville has turned away from her "It was boring . . . But, I'm certainly glad that Digg's nowhere near as brutal as Oliver," Aurelia replies, "Has the trolley been by yet?"

"Yeah," Neville says.

"Aw, fuck," Aurelia groans.

Seamus laughs "As if Lover Boy wouldn't buy a Chocolate Frog for his precious girlfriend."

"Actually, I bought three," Neville says, neither denying the title 'Lover Boy' or the title of Aurelia being his precious girlfriend, his face is bright red as he hands Aurelia one of the Chocolate Frogs.

She doesn't take it as eagerly as he expects her too, Aurelia loves Chocolate Frogs, she loves anything that's chocolate and usually she gets excited when someone gives her some but she doesn't this time. Neville peers at her, she's biting her lower lip which is a bright pink colour that contrasts greatly against her pale, heavily freckled face.

Aurelia's pretty like really pretty. Neville thinks she's the prettiest girl he's ever seen. Her crooked smile is blinding, her blue eyes remind him of the sky, her button nose is so bloody cute especially when it gets all scrunched up when she tries to concentrate, and then there's her laugh.

Merlin!

Her bloody laugh!

It's nothing like people expect, — like he expected — it's not evil, it's not like the Muggle movie his godmother made him watch with that green, crazy witch who wanted that dog and ruby shoes. That movie gave him nightmares for weeks. No, her laugh is nice, it's soft, and sometimes it sounds like chimes. Her laugh gives him butterflies.

Plant Boy, you alright there," Aurelia asks, nudging his shoulder which distracts him from his thoughts.

"Yeah — yeah, why are you asking," He stammers.

"You've been staring at me for almost five minutes now."

He turns bright red.

"Are. . . Are you mad at me," She asks quietly.

Why in Merlin's name would he be mad at her?! However, instead of reassuring her that he's not mad, he just yells: "YOU'RE REALLY PRETTY!"

Everyone turns to look at Neville, the half-eaten Chocolate Frog falls from her hand.

 _He called you pretty! Not just pretty, he called you really pretty_! She turns as red as he is, smiling sheepishly as she giggles out a "Thank you!"

Hannah frowns, jumping up from her seat "I just remembered I promised Suse I'd sit with her," she exclaims then quickly leaves the compartment, earning an eye roll from Olivia and a sad sigh from Mari.

Seamus smirks at Neville who internally groans; he's never gonna live this down.

Dean saves the day by pinching Seamus' arm, muttering: "Don't you dare!"

"Fine! Only because you asked so nicely," Seamus hisses sarcastically, rubbing his arm.

Aurelia smooths out her sunflower-print sundress with shaky hands, trying her best to remain calm. _He thinks you're pretty! Holy fuck, this must be a dream_! She internally screams, _Neville thinks I'm pretty and why does that make me so excited_? She crinkles her nose, why is she acting like she's got a crush on her best friend.

She shouldn't have a crush on Neville Longbottom, not only for the obvious reasons but for the fact that she's never had the best track record with crushes. Her first crush, when she was five, was little seven-year-old, Daniel Roseburke, ran from her. Literally ran from her, and he ran screaming. Then her next crush was Pansy Parkinson, they were both seven at the time, and nothing came from it because they were seven and Pansy was absolutely smitten with Auelia's twin brother. And then there was Blaise Zabini but she doesn't ever think about that disastrous affair. And then Ginny . . . Her dad almost killed her by giving her Lord Voldemort's diary, so as far as Aurelia knows, that did not end well either. So, her bad track record with crushes and the fact that Neville is her best friend, Aurelia should not let herself actually have a crush on him.

Aurelia grabs his hand and smiles at him "I think you're pretty too."

She cringes, _who the fuck calls a boy 'pretty'? You're supposed to call them cute, handsome, or hot_. Well, she guesses that best friends can call each other pretty, _it's fine — you're fine_.

Neville smiles brightly but squirms sheepishly in his seat "Th — th — thanks."

Seamus gives Dean a pleading look but Dean shakes his head and whispers: "No, leave them alone."

Seamus sighs dramatically but says nothing.

"Wow, I sure do love your totally ' _plantonic_ ' relationship," Olivia laughs, grinning widely.

Seamus gapes at Olivia. He's the one who teases Aurelia and Neville, that's his job.

"Did she just —" Neville begins to ask but Aurelia places her free hand over his mouth and shakes her head.

"Don't question her, it'll only fuel her." Aurelia whispers, glancing at Olivia who looks very proud of herself.

"It's not even funny, I've heard better puns," Seamus huffs.

"It's kind of funny," Dean says, grinning.

"It's really funny," Neville giggles, he really wishes their relationship is more than platonic.

"You're the worst, Liv," Aurelia tells her, although she's smiling.

"Correction: I'm the best," Olivia replies, smiling smugly.

"That's debatable," Aurelia says teasingly.

Olivia gasps offended "You wound me, Blue, deeply wound me."

Aurelia smiles at Olivia, batting her thick eyelashes "You love me anyway."

"I suppose," Olivia drawls out, "But only because of your killer jawline."

"That's not the only killer thing, Black, has," Seamus pipes in.

Aurelia's smile turns into a scowl "Fuck you, Finnigan!"

"I'm flattered but you're not really my — OW! What the fuck! Neville, control your girl!"

Seamus, as usual, is only joking and on most occasions Aurelia'll joke back but right now isn't one of those occasions. He crossed the line. It's bound to happen with how often the two tease each other. She doesn't like it when people tease her about her family, she hated being reminded of how evil the lot of them can be and Seamus never seemed to remember that her family was off limits when it came to his jokes.

Neville goes to follow after her but Mari stops him, telling him: "Leave her, Neville . . . It's best you give her some space."

* * *

****

* * *

**AURELIA HUGS HERSELF** as she walks quickly down the train corridor. She glances in the compartment as she passes them, looking for her older cousin, Ellie Black. She curses herself for letting Seamus' comment get to her especially since he had only been joking but since it had been cracked around Neville, the joke had hit a nerve. She's afraid that one day Neville's gonna realise just how much she looks like her Aunt Bellatrix and decide that he doesn't want to be friends with her anymore.

Aurelia hasn't had the best year, as it ended with her finding out her second favourite Professor is a werewolf and having one of her freak outs in the middle of the Great Hall. And it started off with her being attacked by a Dementor at the beginning of the year. The Dementor attack had resurfaced more memories of her Aunt Bellatrix. She's got a brilliant memory, a Muggle doctor had told she possibly has Hyperthymesia which allows her to remember a lot and remember her memories in vivid detail. And, Merlin, does she remember her aunt in vivid detail.

Aurelia reckons that having Hyperthymesia can be useful when it comes to school work but it's not useful when she actually — despite what her mum and dad had told her — spent a lot of her babyhood with a deranged Death-Eater. Let's not forget the fact she had been attacked by a werewolf, she'd like to forget that but she can't forget that, she can't forget a lot of things.

She can't forget the fact that Bellatrix would sing her to sleep, she can't forget the fact that Bellatrix saved her from Gwendoline Goyle, although she can't recall what exactly Goyle had tried to do to her, she can't forget the fact that Bellatrix gave her more love than her parents or the fact Bellatrix had been such a big part of her earliest memories more so than her parents had; they were practically absent compared to her.

Aurelia remembers a lot of good things about her aunt, of course, she knows very well that her aunt's a very bad person and she's grown to hate her but she can recall a time she absolutely adored the woman. She wishes she can forget that time, forget the time when she had been just a wee toddler waddling about Malfoy Manor asking for her aunt although the woman had been absent for quite some time.

This sometimes made it awkward for Aurelia to be around Neville on some occasions, even though he's got no idea that remembers Bellatrix that well. She's too afraid to tell him at this point. That would require telling him about that phase she went through when she was three where she had called Bellatrix 'mama' for weeks on end until her mum had snapped at her to never call her that again or else she'd regret it — she really wishes she can forget that. Aurelia'd much rather tell him about the ugly scars on her face.

The Dementor attack had also triggered some memories of her cousin, Sirius, but she doesn't understand where those memories came from because she knows for certain she's never met him. Either, her parents lied to her or she's making things up. Or maybe she's going crazy, coming from the family that she did, that is entirely possible too.

Finally, she comes across the compartment where Ellie sits along with Fred, George, and Lee.

"Hey, Blue," Lee greets her cheerily as she slips into the compartment.

"Hello," She says softly.

George's resting his head on Ellie's lap and is taking up most of the seat so Aurelia plops down on his stomach.

He groans in pain but makes no move to push her off "You could've at least given me a bloody warning, Blue!"

Ellie pokes his nose "What's the fun in that?"

Fred stares at Aurelia, he can tell something's wrong, she's not laughing at George.

"You alright," Fred wonders.

She shakes her head, pouting.

"What's wrong," Lee asks.

"Finnigan," Aurelia mumbles.

The four boys share knowing looks, they shouldn't have expected any differently. Ellie frowns, the Irish Gryffindor probably brought up their family's less than honourable reputation. He knows exactly how she feels being not only the son of Regulus Black but the son of Callisto Burke a notorious Death-Eater that's so loyal to the Dark Lord she tried giving the Dark-Mark to Ellie when he was only a year old. There's a half-finished Dark-Mark on his wrist and it only adds to the rumours surrounding him.

"I hate our family," Aurelia tells Ellie, who laughs.

"I know. You tell me this all the time!"

"I'll say it until the day I die," Aurelia grumbles.

"And then you'll come back as a ghost keep saying it for all eternity," Lee jokes and the three boys roar with laughter.

"You bet your ass I will," She says determinedly.

* * *

****

* * *

**AURELIA STAYS THE** rest of the train ride with them, although she had planned to return to her friends but she lost track of time talking and joking around with the four boys. As the train comes to a stop at Platform 9 and 3\4, Aurelia leaves the compartment hastily in search of her friends.

"Tell mum or Auntie Andy, whichever one is out there that I'm goin' to Georgie's house for the night," Ellie calls after her.

"M'kay, Ellie, see you tomorrow then," Aurelia replies absentmindedly as she walks quickly down the train corridor, she doesn't even bother to remind him that Mae had told them it was going to be Auntie Andy who picked them up.

"Excuse me," Aurelia mumbles repeatedly, making her way through a group of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. Amongst them are Mari's older and younger siblings, Heather and Samuel. The next thing she know she's been tripped and she hears Heather snicker. Samuel scolds her but she only snickers louder.

Wen Zhang helps her up while asking "Are you alright there, Blue?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Aurelia says, smiling politely at Wen. It's a lie, her palms are stinging like a bitch, Aurelia rubs her palms on her skirt while nodding her head, "Totally fine."

"Well, have a good summer then, Blue," Wen says although she looks doubtful of Aurelia's answer. They weren't friends but Wen has been looking out for her since she started dating Cedric and Aurelia had always thought that Wen was nice from what Cedric said about her.

"You too," Aurelia says cheerily and she continues to look for her friends.

However, they find her first. Seamus grabs her from behind and she lets out a terrified screech as she tries to escape his grasp.

Panic wells in her chest and she feels her throat constrict. _No_ , she tells herself firmly, _not here, not now_. There were too many people, too many sounds — _no_ , they're sounds of children not owls and branches, _you're not there. You're not there. You're —_

"You alright there Black? It's only me . . . It's just Seamus," He speaks softly.

 _See, you're not in the forest_ , Aurelia tells herself, grabbing at the hem of her dress, she takes in its smooth texture. It's not that scratchy, wool cloak and it's not her school uniform. _It's fine, you're fine_.

"Uh, I'm sorry about earlier, I was only joking," Seamus apologises.

"Yeah I — I know."

"Well, now that's settled: hey Lover Boy, I found your lass," Seamus calls out, surprisingly she doesn't curse or hit him for calling Neville that. She's looking around nervously and she kind of reminds him of that weird, old World-War II veteran that lives down the street from him.

Neville sighs as he hears Seamus call him, will he ever stop calling me that? He half-expects him to be joking when he turns to look, but he's not; Aurelia's standing beside him "Ari, there you are! You had me worried there, I thought you might be mad at us, mad at me . . . I wanted to go after you but Wilkes told me not to."

"I'm not mad at you. . . Or any of you," She says quietly.

"Are you alright," He asks.

"Yeah, I — I'm fine . . . I'm just tired."

Neville looks at her skeptically then hold out his hand for him to hold, she grabs it and threads her fingers through his. They say their goodbyes to their friends and head of the train. There's a lot of people on the platform so Neville and Aurelia head out to King Cross' Station where his grandmother and Aunt Andy are waiting. Neville asks if Mae is picking her up tonight but accidentally refers to Mae as her mum and then gets really flustered.

"You know you can just call her my mum . . . I mean, she's more of a mum to me than my actual mum." Aurelia tells him, "Mae's not technically my mum though, since she hasn't legally adopted me. . . She's adopted Ellie though," the last sentence comes out sadder than she means it to.

This happens every time someone questions what Mae is to her. It makes her wonder why Mae hasn't adopted her yet, it's been almost three years since she took her in and Mae adopted Ellie a year after he came into her care. Aurelia wonders if Mae doesn't want to adopt her.

"I thought she already adopted her when she took you in?"

"Not legally."

"What's the difference?"

"Trust me, there's a difference," Aurelia mumbles.

"I trust you," Neville says, without missing a beat.

She goes to tell him that she didn't mean it like that but as they lock eyes, she finds herself speechless. He's staring at her so intently it's like his hazel eyes are peering into her soul. The butterflies in her stomach are fluttering around harder than how she dances to Honey, Honey by ABBA.

"NEVILLE," Neville's grandmother, Augusta Longbottom yells out.

They look to the elderly woman, Aurelia waves to her, smiling politely. She gets a curt nod in response which is far better than last year's response.

"Well, goodbye then, Ari, I'll miss you."

"Aw, I'll miss you too, Plant Boy," Aurelia says, smiling teasingly.

Neville grins and goes to say something but Augusta calls for him again.

Aurelia hugs him and he hugs her back probably a bit too tightly, his heart hammering in his chest. They pull away, both blushing like mad. Neville glances at his grandmother to see that she's been distracted by Aurelia's aunt, Andromeda Tonks, which means they have a few more minutes together.

"Are you sure you can't come with us," Aurelia asks, referring to the Quidditch World Cup.

"I'm sure."

She pouts "Well, fuck! It's going to be positively boring without you there, Plant Boy!"

His heart feels like it's going to burst. "It's the World Cup, I can't see it being boring under any circumstances," Neville says, giggling.

"Well, it can be if the circumstances include you not being there." Aurelia says, her hair turns pink as she stares down at him.

Neville's breath catches in his throat. He could kiss her right there and now, her lips look so soft, he could kiss her, he could do it —

"Aster, love, we need to get going . . . I've got cookies that need to be baked," Andromeda calls out.

Aurelia's eyes light up "Ooh, cookies! Well, I gotta go, Plant Boy, I love you, b —"

They both freeze.

 _Oh my Merlin_ , Aurelia thinks horror-struck, _you do have a crush on him, don't you? You are such a traitor_!

"What," Neville gasps, his lips turning upwards into a dopey smile.

Her nose scrunches up as she gives him a confused look "I said . . . I love you."

He swallows thickly, he's speechless, Aurelia studies his expression. It's not bad but it's not good either. She punches his shoulder playfully, laughing loudly "You know that! You're like my best friend, o' course, I love you!"

 _Nope, you don't have a crush on him_! Aurelia berates herself, _I won't allow it! You are not going to ruin your beautiful friendship with this beautiful boy, it's not going to happen_!

Neville laughs hollowly as Aurelia starts backing away from him.

"Goodbye, Plant Boy!" Aurelia says, giving him finger guns — _what the fuck, Blue, fingers guns, really_?!

He smiles softly at her, mumbling: "Bye, Sunflower Girl."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pining between TreeStar is just *chef's kiss* wow I love it, I love them!! They are peak best friends to lovers and don't worry their first kiss which does indeed happen in act one will make up for all the angst and pining I put them through but you still have awhile before that happens! Also Aurelia is the CEO of lowkey being a hypocrite and Seamus is the CEO of the Annoy-Asterope-Malfoy Squad. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 5,595


	5. Ghosts of Almerry Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black makes cookies with the tonks family and realises that she'll never have a peaceful year at hogwarts . . .

****

**CHAPTER THREE** :

 **003 ||** Ghosts of Almerry Castle

* * *

**ANDROMEDA TONKS HAS** to be Aurelia's favourite aunt, she makes the best cookies in the world and she doesn't make Aurelia feel bad about her flat figure. Andromeda had easily taken the spot of the best aunt out of the three she has. Not that it's a hard competition — one aunt's in Azkaban for torturing the parents of her best friend into insanity and the other aunt's a stuck-up bitch that likes to make her life hell at Hogwarts.

After saying goodbye to Neville, Aurelia goes bounding over to her aunt with a large grin on her face. She goes to greet her aunt when her cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, appears behind of Andromeda with a shit-eating grin on her face, Aurelia stops dead in her tracks and the smile is wiped off her face. Nym had obviously seen her interacting with Neville Longbottom, a boy, and she is blushing, which means only one thing: Aurelia is never going to hear the end of it.

"First off," Nym says, her smile gleaming with mischief, "Asterope, you look fabulous with those leather gloves, second —"

Nym is about to start her endless taunting but Aurelia isn't about to let that happen even though she knows there's nothing to taunt because Neville is just her best friend but it still gets on her nerves. Her cousin had teased her about Ron for the entirety of her first year until Ginny put an end to it by saying that Aurelia liked her better, which was true but Aurelia hadn't expected Ginny to know that. The youngest Weasley was more preceptive than anyone realised and also Aurelia reckons she can be a little obvious when it comes to crushes. But, Aurelia didn't have a crush on Neville, the blush and smile on her face must tell Nym otherwise.

"Where's your brother — I mean, where's Ellie," Andromeda cuts in, giving Nym a warning glare.

"He went with George," Aurelia says, "I thought that'd be obvious, they're always together, aren't they?"

"Hello, little one," Donna Tonk's loud voice exclaims

Aurelia jumps at her sudden appearance and lets out a yelp, she hadn't realised that Donna was visiting this year. Donna Tonks was Ted Tonks' little sister but she was only nine years older than Nym and so they often acted like sisters, sometimes Aurelia forgot she was actually Nym's aunt. She doesn't visit much anymore, she's a Magizoologist and she travels a lot, Aurelia was probably about three or four when Donna moved out of the Tonks'. She remembered that one visit Donna was blaring some Muggle music and then the next visit it was like she had vanished from existence.

"Donna," Andromeda says warningly, "I told you not to jump her like that, she's . . . She's sensitive. And you girls, I don't need you teasing each other for hours on end, I need to get home so I can finish these cookies I'm making."

And just like that, they both fall into line, not wanting to keep Andromeda from cooking her delicious cookies. Both Andromeda and Nym reach their arms out for Aurelia to take, Aurelia eagerly grabs Andromeda's arm and sticks her tongue out at Nym. Her cousin was horrendous at Apparating, in Aurelia's opinion at least, whenever the got to their destination, she always felt like throwing up, so she was glad that Ellie went with the Weasleys because that meant she could Apparate with Andromeda instead.

The Tonks' house, a little two story house that looked like a cottage you would find in the middle of forest filled with fairies, is like a second home to Aurelia, she looked forward to visiting as much as she looked forward to visiting Mae back then. Aurelia had been going to the Tonks for as long as she could remember and she can remember real far back. She much preferred it over Malfoy manor. Tonks' house is as warm and inviting as the people who lived there whereas Malfoy manor looked cold and intimidating and it was only the people in there that were kind, it left Aurelia feeling a little uneasy; Malfoy Manor had never felt like home to Aurelia.

Once they were all settled in, Aurelia, Nym, and Donna began to help Andromeda with the chocolate chip cookies she was baking. Even Ted Tonks, Andromeda's husband was helping as he had come early from work, Aurelia's not sure what he does exactly but she's certain it had to do with Muggle Television.

Her Uncle Ted sits across the table from the Aurelia and Nym while Donna sits beside him. He was helping them roll up the cookie dough while smoking from an ancient-looking pipe "So, Lia, how was your school year?" he questions her casually.

"It was okay, I guess. Snape was a dick as usual, Gryffindor can do no wrong, I got into some dangerous shit again. Oh, I got my position switched on the Quidditch team — I'm the new seeker!"

"That's wicked, little one, but did you say Sn —" Donna begins to say.

"Don't be so shy, Asterope, tell them about your new boyfriend," Nym cuts Donna off, giving Aurelia a wide, taunting grin.

"Merlin, give me strength," Andromeda mutters to herself as she bends down to open the oven.

Aurelia glowers at Nym, sticking her tongue out.

"Boyfriend," Uncle Ted says with keen interest, giving Aurelia a curious look, "Come on, Lia, give us the details."

"He's not my boyfriend," Aurelia says flatly as she flips Nym off and she ignores the offended gasp that her cousin gives her as she continues explaining the situation, "He's my best friend, you know, Neville Longbottom, the one that I've been friends with since first year."

"Look at her face, she a tomato, they are so not just friends," Nym argues, crossing her arms across her chest.

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"He's your boyfriend," Nym insists, "Look, even your hair's gone pink!"

"Sod off, it doesn't mean anything," Aurelia disagrees.

"It means you're in looove!"

"I don't mean to tease you, little one ( "That's a bloody lie, Donna!" ) but I think my dearest niece has a point," Donna pipes in, laughing only to fall silent when she catches sight of her sister-in-law's fuming face.

"GIRLS," Andromeda yells, "Please, don't start this again, please. The last time you argued about boys my table ended up being stabbed — It's mahogany. Please, the bloody thing cost a fortunate."

Both Aurelia and Nym fall silent, they continue working at making more cookie dough for Andromeda to bake. It's quiet for a good ten minutes and then Nym throws a chocolate chip at Aurelia who looks up and glares at her again but she merely smiles at the younger girl. Andromeda, who can hear the tension building just as well as she can hear the chocolate chip that just hit the floor, sighs tiredly to herself and Ted tries to hide his amused grin.

"So, Asterope, are you sure you don't wanna talk about your little boyfriend," Nym questions casually, giving her a smug smirk.

Aurelia clenches her fists and takes a deep breath and she cooly retorts "I don't know, Nymphadora, wanna talk about the heart eyes you give Remus?"

It's Nym's turn to be angry, her hair turns a bright red and she hisses "You little shit!"

Donna spits out her drink of Butterbeer "Remus bloody Lupin, Nym, what the hell?!"

Uncle Ted looks stunned "Wait, heart eyes? Remus? Since when?"

"It's nothing," Nym says and that's probably true but the same could be said about Aurelia and Neville — it's nothing more than friendship. And besides, Nym barely knows Remus. But, anyone is fair game when it comes to this war.

Aurelia smiles innocently, knowing she had won this round and Nym glares at her, hard, she's a sore loser.

"Remus," Ted says looking to Andromeda who merely shrugs her shoulders, "Really? Like as in our Remus? Remus Lupin"

Nym pouts, turning a light pink as she tries to distract herself with the cookie dough at hand.

"So," Ted says in an attempt to lighten the mood, "How did you enjoy Hogsmeade, Lia? You know my first trip I got hit with that dancing jinx or whatever it's called, yeah, Rowle —" he falters, his attempt fails miserably at the mention of the infamous Xanthea Rowle.

Xanthea Rowle had been a menace back in school, neither Aurelia's mum or aunts had fond memories of Rowle, and even Aurelia's uncles, the fearsome Death-Eater duo, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, are scared of her. That's all Aurelia knows about the infamous Rowle, the disappearing Death-Eater, she's only ever been mentioned in passing.

Ted clears his throat "I was hit by a Slytherin for laughs and Dromeda over here felt bad for me so she brought me to your mum — er, no . . . It was your aunt and had her break the jinx."

"Hogsmeade was okay, I guess," Aurelia says failing to stifle a yawn. She frowns as a wave of tiredness washes over her and she slouches in her seat, wanting nothing more than to go to sleep. It was as if this conversation, which had hardly began, was exhausting her.

"Where did you go first," Ted asks but the question seems to go through one ear and out the other, she stares at the table with drooping eyelids and he frowns at his niece, "Are you alright, Lia?"

There's a pause and then Aurelia nods slowly and begins to aggressively rub at her eyes "Yeah, m'fine. Are . . . Are any of the cookies cool 'nough to eat?"

"They are, girls, knock yourselves out."

After devouring about five cookies, Aurelia passes out cold on the Tonks' couch, trapping Nym under her long legs, the two cousins had been having a Scooby-Doo marathon, a normal activity for them. Nym pokes her cheek multiple times but Aurelia remains dead to the world and Nym has no choice but sit there and watch the rest of Scooby Doo and the Boo Brothers.

Hours later, Donna comes into the room to announce that supper is ready only to spot his sleeping cousin and Aurelia on the couch and a wicked grin crosses her sun-kissed face, she creeps forward but Nym pops an eye open and hisses "Don't you dare."

Donna scowls playfully but she abandons the idea of scaring the shit out of them when she spots the pile of Scooby-Doo VCR tapes "How insensitive would it be if we were to put on Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Dora? Like how mad do you think Andy and my bro would be?"

Nym bites on her lip to keep herself from giggling "You're such a wanker, Donna, you know that's a soft subject for her and mum and dad would be —"

"Do it, you cowards," Aurelia mumbles sleepily, she doesn't even bother opening her eyes, she knows that both of them look mortified. The creaking on the floorboards in the hallway had woken her up, she's a light sleeper unless she's sleeping in her own bed, safe inside Almerry Castle.

Both Nym and Donna laugh after a moment of silence, there's a sleepy smile on Aurelias' face that tells them that she really doesn't care so she puts the movie and takes a seat on the floor in front of the two girls. By the time the movie actually starts both Nym and Aurelia are fast asleep again.

* * *

* * *

**MAE DOESN'T ARRIVE** at the Tonks until the next day. Just after two in the morning, Mae knocks on the front door of their house. Andromeda and Donna are the only ones awake in the house, Andromeda had stayed up late to await the return of Mae and Donna had stayed up to accompany her. When Mae's knock echoes into the kitchen, Andromeda wastes no time in answering the door and ushering the shivering redhead inside.

"You need to stop doing this, Mae," She scolds her.

Mae shakes her head stubbornly "You could give me a million reasons to stop and I still wouldn't . . . You four are my responsibility —"

Donna comes and leans against the kitchen doorway, she frowns as she looks at Mae and then tiny footsteps sound from the room across from her, Aurelia's awake. Donna swallows the pain she feels and smiles softly at Aurelia as she steps into the darkened living room doorway, blinking rapidly thanks to the harsh light in front of her. Donna slips back into the kitchen to give Mae, Andromeda, and Aurelia some privacy.

"Mae," Aurelia's small and very tired voice calls out.

"Or I could just give you one," Andromeda mutters as she watches Mae's stubborn expression melt away.

Quiet footsteps cross the living room and Aurelia's head pokes out into the small foyer, she blinks tiredly as she stares at the two woman. Mae laughs softly as she takes in Aurelia's sleepy appearance, her hair's sticking in all different direction and her clothes are all wrinkled "Mae, you came — you're here."

"Yes, I am. I'm sorry I'm so late, I didn't expect to be that long, wee moon, I lost track of time." Mae apologises.

Aurelia's just glad, she came back especially after having a terrible dream that Mae and Ellie decided they didn't want her anymore and sent her back to the Malfoys. As Mae smiles lovingly at her, she realises that the dream will never happen, Mae loves her and so does Ellie. _They would never send me back_.

"Would you like to come back to Almerry with me or would you like to stay here for the rest of the night," Mae asks.

"I wanna go with you," Aurelia mumbles sleepily.

"Are you sure, y'know it's a bumpy drive up to Almerry Castle from Travis' Inn," Mae says.

Aurelia nods quickly "O' course I know! I've been living with you for three years now, I know it's bumpy but that's okay! I wanna go with you," Aurelia exclaims.

"Well, if that's what you want, wee moon, go get your things then." Mae tells her, smiling softly.

Aurelia nods, stumbling back into the living room to gather her trunk and Freddie.

"Are you sure you're alright, Mae," Andromeda whispers.

Mae nods "I'll be fine, dear . . . I assume Ellie went to Molly's?"

Andromeda isn't at all thrilled by the change of subject but nods nevertheless "It'd be more surprising if he was here, wouldn't it?"

"You're right, a cow would jump over the moon before that boy misses a chance to hang out with George," Mae laughs with a shake of her head, "And he thinks he's slick."

"Mae, did she —" Andromeda begins to ask, the look on her face reminds Mae of a frightened child.

She almost feels bad for lying, Mae shakes her head and replies "No, she just talked and asked about Aurelia . . . As she always does, it's always been about Aurelia —"

"What about me," Aurelia questions, entering the foyer again this time with her things.

Both women froze, Mae eyes her weirdly "We were just discussing your academics! Meda was just telling me that you did very well this year. Not that I'm surprised, you do well every year."

"Oh," Aurelia mumbles, no longer looking interested in their conversation as she believes that it's about school.

"Are you ready, wee moon," Mae asks.

"I'm r — r — r — ready." Aurelia replies, yawning.

"Mind if we use your fireplace, Meda?"

"No, not at all." Andromeda says, going to set up the Floo Network.

Once that's done, Andromeda kisses them both on the cheek and insists that the come over next week for dinner. It'll be the last dinner Donna spends with them that year as she's been hired to track down a strange new creature in Africa. Mae agrees, saying she'll clear her schedule and with that they're gone.

Aurelia grabs a handful of Floo Powder and yells: "Almerry Inn!"

She comes out of the fireplace of Almerry Inn, the pub is rather busy despite the time but it's quiet. At the very back of the pub area is Travis Calderwood who looks to be sleeping.

Mae follows shortly after "My car's just outside, wee moon."

Aurelia nods and drags her things outside of the inn, she spots Mae's car, a yellow 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle, at the very end of the street.

"Did you really have to park way down there," Aurelia groans, her Scottish accent is thicker in her sleepy state.

"I wasn't thinkin' when I left this mornin'! Forgive me!" Mae replies, her tone full of sass but there's a grin on her face at the sound of Aurelia's accent which she got from Mae..

Aurelia's eyes widen although they want nothing more than to close "You've been gone all day?! Merlin, what have you been up to?!"

"Nothin'." Mae says shortly, growing tense.

Aurelia fears that she's upset Mae. She didn't mean to, she hadn't asked the question expecting answer, she had only asked it as a joke, to emphasise that Mae's been gone a long time, doing whatever she's been doing. Aurelia really hadn't meant to upset her. She chews on her lower lip as they approach their car, she glances at Mae to see that she's still tense.

"I'm sorry," Aurelia blurts out.

Mae looks up, the car keys jingle in her hand as her surprised expression turns to one of confusion "Sorry for what, wee moon?"

"For prying . . . What you do is none of my business," Aurelia mumbles.

"You were hardly pryin', wee moon, you've got nothin' to apologise for," Mae tells her.

"Okay," Aurelia mumbles although she still feels as though Mae's upset with her.

Mae helps her put her trunk in the backseat along with her cat crate, Freddie's not at all thrilled by this, he doesn't like cars and he doesn't like cages, he prefers walking or shoulders for transportation; Freddie mewls loudly.

"Oh, stop complaining, Freddie," Aurelia scolds, "It's only gonna be thirty minute drive."

"But, it's a bumpy one," Mae chimes in.

"Shhh, don't tell him that!"

Mae rolls her eyes playfully "Ye know he can't understand you, wee moon, he's just a cat!"

"You never know . . . Professor McGonagall seems to understand Freddie just fine . . . But, I don't think they like each other very much. I was looking for him once and I found him in front of McGonagall's office and she seemed to be arguing with him, she said that his name was dumb after he had apparently insulted her name."

"Well, she's not exactly wrong," Mae snorts.

"Freddie's name's not dumb," Aurelia gasps.

"His full name is."

"His full name is pure brilliance!"

"Sure, wee moon," Mae says sarcastically, giving Aurelia a judgemental look.

"It is," Aurelia insists, getting into the passenger's seat.

Mae smiles as she gets into the driver's seat and turns the car on. "If you say so," She hums.

"You're so mean to me," Aurelia teases.

Mae only laughs as she turns the car around and heads to Almerry Castle.

The castle sits upon the highest hill on Almerry Island and as far as the locals know, it's been abandoned since Bellatrix Lestrange went to Azkaban. They think that Mae, Ellie, and Aurelia live in the small two-story house at the base of the hill. While they owned that house, they didn't live in it, unless they invited Travis and Lillian Calderwood over for dinner.

Almerry Castle hadn't always belonged to Aurelia's family. Seven centuries ago when the Almerrys founded the island, it had belonged to them. They were the royals of the island but they were dethroned — Aurelia's not being dramatic! She swears, this is the actual word they used in the history book of Almerry — by the Blacks three centuries after finding the Island. All the Almerry killed in a very bloody duel by the Blacks.

No one minded their deaths, most of the people on the island at the time thought that the Blacks were heroes for what they had done. The Almerry were terrible, brutal people that made the Black family look like saints. Almerry Castle used to be filled with tortured souls that were slaughtered by the Almerrys for fun, those souls have long been released from the Castle and now only two remain. The ghosts of the youngest Almerry Children, eight-year-old Anne-Marie and six-year-old Alexander. They were allowed to stay on the condition that they'd be good and to this day they remained much to Ellie and Aurelia's dismay.

Since Aurelia's family had taken over Almerry Island, the castle has been passed down from generation to generation. Her grandparents had used it as a summer vacation get away instead of a permanent residence. Her mother had told her many stories of her summer vacations at the castle, she had adored that place but it had been given to Bellatrix — her mum's _still_ bitter about that. When her aunt had married Rodolphus Lestrange, Grandpa Cygnus had given the summer home to Bellatrix as a 'wedding present' but mum had told Aurelia that it was supposed to be a getaway for her. Then Bellatrix went Azkaban and she had given the castle to Mae — her mum's _so_ bitter about that! — which Aurelia knows raised a lot of eyebrows. Including hers. Mae's a Squib and Aunt Bellatrix's a prejudiced Pureblood bitch, so why would she give Mae a bloody castle?

They were in love, Aurelia theorises, why else would her aunt give a whole ass castle to a Squib, someone she was taught to hate. Mae never says why Bellatrix gave her the castle then again Aurelia never asks but she knows there's got to be a bloody good reason for it.

One day she'll find out why, it'll take awhile as it's not in the Almerry Historicals. In the library there are a series of books the house automatically writes down events they find to be important, they're big books and so far there's about seven of them but Aurelia knows three of them are missing and she's got no idea where they are. One of those books has the answer to her theory. One day, she promises herself as she leans her head against the window. She'll look for them again this summer.

Despite the road to the castle being extremely bumpy, Aurelia finds herself falling back to sleep. Mae's soft humming is lulling her to sleep as she watches the scenery pass them by in a darkened blur. Halfway through the car ride, Mae glances over at Aurelia to find that she's fallen asleep. She smiles fondly at the sleeping child but she can't ignore the pang of sadness that erupts in her heart.

The possible 'what-if' situations are leering in her mind, tearing her apart.

* * *

* * *

**SUMMER VACATION STARTS** out smoothly, after returning to the familiar walls of her bedroom which are painted like Van Gogh's Starry Night and even charmed to move like the wind, Aurelia has had less nightmares and an easier time falling asleep.

Although, she's had a rude awakening almost every morning. Take this morning for example: Aurelia wakes up to Ellie screaming: "OH, MAMA MIA! MAMA MIA! MAMA MIA! LET ME GO!"

Aurelia drags herself out of bed, she's still in her clothes from yesterday, a Hufflepuff Quidditch sweater that has seen better days, a pair of slim-fitting black jeans with three small holes on the left leg, and a pair of yellow knitted socks from Molly Weasley. Mae's told her to get rid of the jeans multiple times now but Aurelia always says "Fuck that, these pants make my legs look good." every time, then usually adds a dramatic comment to the end of that statement that makes Mae roll her eyes.

Stretching out her sore limbs, Aurelia heads to the large bathroom that's adjacent to her even larger bedroom to shower and brush her teeth since she didn't get around to doing those things last night.

Aurelia's halfway through her shower when Anne-Marie's voice calls out "That shower looks a little cold there."

"I like cold showers, Anne-Marie," Aurelia replies cooly, "Now please let me shower in peace, please and thank you."

"I wish I could bathe . . . And I say bathe because showers didn't exist when I was alive," Anne-Marie sighs dramatically, Aurelia can hardly make out her hardly make out the child's ghostly form through the shower curtain.

"Proper hygiene was barely a thing when you were alive. You probably bathed twice a year," Aurelia scoffs.

"I bathed once a month thank you very much! My family were no peasants! You're getting to be as rude as your sisters these days, Bellatrix," Anne-Marie says hotly.

Aurelia sighs, it's not her fault, she reminds herself. Anne-Marie's always had trouble keeping up with the Black family, messing up the names so many times. Andromeda had told her that Anne-Marie would call her and Bellatrix 'Phoebe' all the time. Aurelia looks a lot like Phoebe Black, so does Andromeda and Bellatrix. Bellatrix happens to be the spitting image of Phoebe, except her eyes are a bright, ice blue instead of the dark grey that Phoebe had and of course Phoebe had shockingly blonde hair. Aurelia comes very close to being a spitting image and Anne-Marie sometimes calls her Phoebe but she mostly calls her 'Bellatrix'.

"Aww, didst I hurt thy feelings," Aurelia asks mockingly, scrubbing conditioner into her scalp.

She gets no reply meaning that Anne-Marie has left, the ghost has probably gone to find Ellie or 'Regulus' \ 'Cygnus' as she often calls him.

Anne-Marie's voice sounds from downstairs "OI, REGGIE!"

"CALL ME, REGGIE, ONE MORE TIME!"

Aurelia jumps at the harshness of her cousin's voice and almost slips out of the tub but luckily she manages to balance herself. Today is going to be a long day, Aurelia thinks to herself as she starts rinse out her hair. And a long day it turns out to be indeed. The makings of a long day hit her in the face the moment she enters the kitchen where she finds a seething-with-rage Ellie and a panic-stricken Mae.

"Oh, he knows, oh no, he knows," Her mum mutters as she paces the kitchen, her Scottish accent is thick with concern, "If he even makes a joke about it or — or if they tell Aurelia, it'll all go up in smoke, oh no. It'll be somethin' terrible for her."

"Tell me what," Aurelia asks, stepping into their sight, Mae looks like a deer caught in the headlights and Ellie's hardened expression turns into one of complete indifference.

"Nothing," He says simply.

"Nooo," Mae says placing her hands on Ellie's shoulderd and rubbing circles on them, her accent getting even thicker as she glances at Aurelia, "No, I'm goin' to have to tell her."

Mae gives Aurelia a nervous look she opens her mouth but she stay silent for a long moment before saying: "You might want to sit down for this, my darling Donum Vitae."

This confuses Aurelia even further but she does what she's told nevertheless. She takes a seat at the kitchen island then Aurelia looks at Mae expectantly, they stare at each other for what seems like a long time before finally, the older woman takes a deep breath.

"The Triwizard Tournament is coming to Hogwarts," She says.

"You're joking, right," Aurelia asks meekly. She's got to be joking. They really can't be reviving that tournament after that long. And, Albus fucking Dumbledore can't be dumb enough to let it happen at Hogwarts, not while Harry Potter is attending — that's just a bloody recipe for disaster!

"I'm not, wee moon . . . I'm sorry." Mae says softly.

Aurelia glances at Ellie to gage his reaction but he looks just as, if not, even more surprised that she feels.

Aurelia's a huge history nerd so she's pretty much read everything there's to know about the the Triwizard Tournament. And everything about them practically terrified her, the tasks were nothing short of horrific . . . They could use werewolves, basilisks, or thunderbirds, they could use werewolves — they could use anything. It's horrifying, people have died trying to win it and they want to bring it back, what the fuck are they thinking? But, there's a bright side to this terrible idea —

"The Yule Ball," Aurelia exclaims, pushing her fear of the tournament to the back of her mind, "If they're doing the tournament then that means they're doing the Yule Ball! They've got to, it's mandatory! Ooh, it'll be just like the parties mum and dad would throw! I'll get to wear a fancy dress and dance!"

"Yes, they're doing the Yule Ball, they sent out a letter requiring dress robes for the occasion so we'll be going dress shopping sometime this summer!"

Aurelia pumps her fist in the air "Yes!"

"Wonderful, I bet I'll look great in a little black dress," Ellie says sarcastically.

"You know I meant dress robes for you," Mae groans but then adds in a light tone: "Unless, you want to wear a dress?"

"I'll pass but only because that means I'd have to shave my legs."

"Lazy wanker," Aurelia says teasingly and Ellie flips her off.

Mae rolls her eyes while Aurelia snickers.

Ellie claps his hands together "Well, now that's settled, I'm gonna go see George!"

Mae nods "Sure thing, love, see you later."

"Bye, Ellie," Aurelia says, feeling sad that she's got no one to hang out with now.

"You can come to you know, Blue. I'm sure that Ginny would —"

"Nope, I promised Plant Boy that I would write to him," Aurelia says quickly, her heart racing in her chest as she jumps up out of her seat and runs out of the kitchen.

Once, she's in the safety of her room, Aurelia slams the door behind her and she begins to cry. She can't ever face Ginny again, not when Ginny knows what her family is really like, not after what her father did to her. She feels horrible, guilt and physical pain weighs down heavy on her chest as she struggles to breathe. She can't handle facing Ginny, hearing what Ginny has to say about her now — she hasn't stuck around the younger girl long enough to know how Ginny feels about that situation. Quite frankly, Aurelia never wants to find out. She's perfectly fine with keeping how their friendship once was fresh in her mind then resolving the tension between them and finding out that Ginny thinks she's nothing more than a Death-Eater in the making.

Aurelia takes a deep breath and strides across her large room over to her desk, despite the fact she's crying, Aurelia starts writing a letter to Neville. After all, she had promised and it's nearly a week into their summer vacation and she had still yet to write a letter to him, he must think she's forgotten him or something. Typically they send each other, at the very least, 200 letters every summer, Aurelia does most of the writing but she knows that Neville reads every letter she sends him.

As she finishes the letter and signs her name, Alexander Almerry floats into her room, he smiles mischievously at her.

"Writing an extravagant apology to Ginerva Weasley are you?"

"I'm writing to Neville Longbottom."

"Oooh, how scandalous," Alexander teases, "It's like Romeo and Juliet except literal star-crossed lovers. Get it, 'cause your named after a star."

"Funny," Aurelia deadpans.

"You're so much like your mother, it hurts! She too was involved with someone she shouldn't be but you already know that . . . Oh, wait, you don't."

She drops the letter in surprise "What? No, hang on, Narcissa Malfoy, my grandparents pride and joy, rebelled? What, no, that can't be! No, I don't know, you must tell me more!"

Alexander shrugs his transparent shoulders and smiles innocently "Sorry, can't, I'm not supposed to say."

"What, hey, no that's not fair! You can't come in here and drop a bombshell about my mum like that and not tell me! That's my mum, you have to tell me."

"I mean," His mischievous smile widens, "Technically that's not your mum, so I don't have to tell you anything."

Aurelia inhales sharply and Alexander floats out of her room, laughing loudly as he leaves her hanging. She scowls to herself and picks up the letter she had dropped, mumbling to herself:

"I bloody well hate ghosts."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [MAKE THEM GOLD GIF-SET!](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/637710155771969536/wattpad-ao3-quotev-ffnet-make) made by me
> 
> Hi, yes, the Tonks are the best family ever and I would slaughter anyone for them, they were done so dirty in the OG books so ya girl is gonna give them some happiness! Say hi and bye to Donna Tonks who made a quick appearance in this chapter and will not be back until Act Three of this story. Also, Remus x Dora will not be a thing in this story because of many reasons ( I love fanon!remdora I truly do but not in this AU ) that will be explained later in the book!! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!


	6. Dudley Gets Ton Tongue-Tied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which the weasleys prove to be even more chaotic that the entire black family combined . . . | alternatively: ginny ambushes aurelia to talk about feelings, yikes . . .

****

**CHAPTER FOUR** :

 **004 ||** Dudley Gets Ton Tongue-Tied

* * *

" **MUM WANTS TO** know if you're ready to leave," Ellie asks as he passes the door.

She jumps up and knocks her chair over, heart pounding as she glances at her closed door, underneath the crack she can see the shadow of his feet. He mutters an apology and then asks once more if she's ready, Aurelia takes a deep breath and replies "Aye, I'm almost ready."

"Well hurry up, Blue, I wanna see George!"

Long after his footsteps retreat up the stairs and become nothing more then light taps, Aurelia's heart continues to race and panic floods her veins even though she knows it was only just her cousin. She shakes her head and scolds herself for being so panicky.

"Grow the fuck up," She tells herself as she turns to look in the mirror. Which is a fairly funny statement coming from her seeing as she looks like an overgrown child. Aurelia stands at about five foot six, she's always been taller than most kids her age and she has no shape of form to her body, she wears a sunshine-yellow summer dress with big white polka dots and a white collar with a black leather jacket and matching yellow sun hat. And of course, her black combat boots. If it weren't for the leather jacket adorned with pins and patches, she truly would've looked like an overgrown child.

"Talking to yourself, Asterope," Alexander Almerry says, his ghost comes floating through her walls.

"Being an annoying shithead, Alexander?"

"As always."

Aurelia rolls her eyes as she fixes her sun hat "What do you want?"

"I just came to visit my favourite Black, is that a crime now?"

"Knowing your family's reputation, you'd probably turn it into one and then have me burned alive for fun," Aurelia says dryly, "And besides everyone knows that your favourite Black is my mum. Don't even bother trying to sweet-talk me, it won't work."

"If I had a pulse it would."

"Keep believing that, Alexander, doesn't mean it's true."

Alexander groans in defeat "You're right, you're actually my least favourite Black."

"And you're my least favourite ghost," Aurelia calls after him as he floats back through her wall, "What a little shit head, coming back into my room after that, I don't think so. I fucking hate ghosts."

There's a pecking at her window and she turns to see that great big owl has arrived with a letter, it's Neville's owl or rather his grandmother's owl — it's a goddamned creepy big thing! Aurelia let's the owl come inside to get some food and water as she reads his letter.  
  


_Hi, Sunflower Girl! It's me, Neville! You're probably still busy especially with the world cup coming so soon but I thought I'd write back! My summer's going great thanks for asking and yes I am keeping up my garden, it's gotten so much bigger since last summer! It's almost too big for my room, gran's probably going to yell at me soon for it and make me put it outside. I hope not because I really like having it in my room, sure it's a little messy but it smells nice and it looks nice too. It would be really cool if I could create an ecosystem for the plants to thrive when I'm not here, like a controlled one so it doesn't flood my room and ——_   
  


The next few sentences are scratched out but Aurelia can tell that they were about his plans for his garden in his room, Aurelia frowns at the scratched lines and she traces over them with a finger, wishing that he didn't feel like he had to cut himself off, she would have loved to read more about it. Aurelia continues to read the rest of his letter with keen interest.   
  


_—— anyway, I hope your summer's been good to you! Happy birthday by the way, you mentioned that you celebrated it in your last letter, wish I could have come but you know how my gran is, it sounds like you had a lot of fun. I still haven't found the perfect present for you yet. I got you this sunflower for now! Have fun at the world cup, I hope whatever team you're rooting for wins!!! Love —— ( the word 'love' has been scratched out as well ) —— sincerely, Neville!_

_P.S — if the sunflower isn't there then that means Reginald ate it. I'm hoping he doesn't but he has this weird habit of eating brightly coloured things which is why he's not allowed in my room or I wouldn't have a garden anymore. Unfortunately, he's the only owl I have_!  
  


The sunflower isn't there and when Aurelia looks closely she can see a piece of sunflower petal on the owl's beak, she laughs at this and then begins to write her reply to Neville. Feeling a bit too thrilled that he had written her back so quickly.  
  


_Dear Neville,_

_I'm just heading out to the world cup so you probably won't hear from me for a few days! Your little garden sounds lovely, I would love to hear more about it and your little ecosystem idea, it sounds brilliant. Perhaps I could create a spell for you, I know I'm not the best with magical plants but I can try! Thank you for the birthday wishes and thank you so much for the sunflower, it's very lovely! I hope you have a good rest of your week, I'll write to you as soon as I can Plant Boy!_

_Lots of love, Aurelia_   
  


Aurelia smiles, satisfied that the letter made enough sense to send and then ties it to Neville's owl. She gives the weathered-looking owl a treat before allowing it to deliver the letter "Have a safe trip, dear bird," Aurelia calls out to it before shutting her window.

Seconds later, Ellie comes bursting into her room exclaiming "Hurry up, bitch, we're leaving earlier! I talked mum into it, I wanna see George and you're slowing things down!"   
  
  
  


* * *

* * *

" **HEY** , **BLUE** ," **GINNY** greets her, determination burning in her eyes as she corners Aurelia, "I didn't know you'd be here today."

She definitely knew that Aurelia would be there today, in fact she had greeted Aurelia hardly ten minutes ago when she walked in with Mae and her cousins. But, she says it so naturally as though it is purely a coincidence that they've run into each other in Ginny's own home. Aurelia smiles awkwardly and rubs her hands together, Ginny smiles brightly at her but Aurelia can see a plan forming in her eyes.

"I know, what a surprise," Aurelia laughs and gives Ginny her signature finger guns, "But, sadly, can't stay for long me and the twins are going to get Harry from his monster guardians."

Her saying that couldn't get any better as Arthur Weasley calls her name from downstairs.

"Well, would you look at that, Gin, gotta go," Aurelia says and then she's turning on her heel and running down the stairs as quickly as she can. Behind her she can hear Ginny cursing to herself.

Aurelia doesn't know how long she'll be able to avoid Ginny because Mae and Ellie spend a lot of time at the Burrow. Last summer they visited for a two days and by some miracle, Aurelia managed to avoid Ginny. And, Aurelia knows that next summer they'd probably spend some time at the burrow. It has to do with Mae being Molly's ex-sister-in-law or something along the lines and then, of course, Ellie definitely has something going on with George. So, avoiding Ginny forever is impossible but Aurelia would hold it off for as long as she could because she doesn't want Ginny to tell her that she hates her for what her father did.

"Are you ready, Blue," Arthur wonders as she comes up beside him.

"Aye, Aye, Mr. Weasley," She replies, saluting him.

"Blue, you've known me for three years how many times do I have to tell you to call me, Arthur," He asks, shaking his head and smiling fondly at her.

"Aye, Aye, Mr. Arthur!" She says, saluting him again.

Arthur sighs exasperated "That — That's better, I suppose."

She grins brightly at him while Fred, George, and Ron laugh at her antics.

"We'll be taking the Floo Network to the Dursleys to pick up Harry," Arthur explains then gives the twins and Aurelia a pointed look, "And, no funny business."

"Mr. Arthur," Aurelia gasps, placing a hand over her heart, "I would never! I'm an angel! I don't do funny business!"

Fred and George snort at this.

Arthur sighs again "Clark the Chicken, Ron's shirt, Molly's muffins, Percy and Oliv —"

"Uh, okay, okay . . . Maybe a saint is a better way to describe me then."

"I think 'saint' might be pushing it, Blue," Ron says dryly.

"Wow, my own trusted friend, my second favourite Weasley, how can you betray me like that," Aurelia says, clutching her hand over her heart now as she gives Ron an incredulous look.

"Saint is definitely pushing it," Fred cuts in.

"It's bloody shoving it, I'd describe you as more of a devil spawn," George adds.

"Oi! I thought we were off to pick Harold up, not pick on me!"

"We are, all of you stop your fussing, we're running late as it is," Arthur says, "Follow me, kids."

Arthur goes first, Fred follows him and Aurelia cuts George off and goes next. However, there's a wee problem: the Dursley's fireplace is blocked and Aurelia finds herself squashed in between Arthur and Fred. Rolling her eyes, Aurelia says sarcastically "Well, this went well —" and then Fred steps on her foot and she cries out "— ouch! Fred!"

"No — go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake — tell George, not to — ouch!" Arthur yelps, "George, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell Ron —"

"Maybe Harry can hear us, Dad! Maybe he'll be able to let us out," George suggests, "Harry? Harry, can you hear us?"

On the other side of the fireplace Aurelia can hear angry voices yelling at Harry. Then Harry's voice asks loud and clear: "Mr. Weasley? Can you hear me?"

Arthur stops hammering on the fireplace and shushes them.

"Mr. Weasley, it's Harry . . . the fireplace has been blocked up. You won't be able to get through there."

"Damn," Arthur curses, "What on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"

"They've got an electric fire," Harry explains.

"Really," Arthur asks excitedly, "Eclectic, you say? With a plug? Gracious, I must see that . . . Let's think . . . Ouch, Ron!"

Aurelia groans as she was squashed even more. Ron then proceeds to ask: "What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"

"Oh no, Ron," Fred replies, sarcastically, "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."

"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," George adds in a dry tone and Aurelia stifles a giggle.

"Boys, boys," Arthur scolds vaguely, "I'm trying to think what to do . . . Yes . . . Only way . . . Stand back, Harry."

Arthur raises his wand and a gruff voice on the other side bellows: "Wait a moment! What exactly are you going to —"

He doesn't receive an answer as Arthur has already said the spell, causing the wall blocking the fireplace to explode.

"Holy mother of tits," Aurelia curses under her breath, covering her ears at the loud noise.

"That's better," Arthur pants, brushing the dust from his long green robes and straightening his glasses, "Ah, you must be Harry's aunt and uncle!"

He holds out his hand for them to shake but they back away. Aurelia feels eyes on her, she looks up to see Harry's cousin, Dudley Dursley staring at her. She doesn't understand why, she's not that ugly. In fact, puberty had beat her ass these past two summers and she actually looks cute on most days now. He's peeking around the edge of the doorway, no one else seems to notice him. She narrows her eyes at him and turns her nose into a pig nose, Dudley's eyes widen in fear and he disappears from view.

"Er — yes — sorry about that," Arthur begins, lowering his hand and looks over his shoulder at the blasted fireplace, "It's all my fault. It just didn't occur to me that we wouldn't be able to get out at the other end. I had your fireplace connected to the Floo Network, you see — just for an afternoon, you know, so we could get Harry. Muggle fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected, strictly speaking — but I've got a useful contact at the Floo Regulation Panel and he fixed it for me. I can put it right in a jiffy, though, don't worry. I'll light a fire to send the kids back, and then I can repair your fireplace before I Disapparate."

From the looks on their faces, Aurelia can tell they don't understand a single word coming out of Arthur's mouth.

"Hello, Harry," Arthur says, smiling brightly "Got your trunk ready?"

"It's upstairs," Harry replies, grinning.

"We'll get it," Fred offers at once, winking at Harry.

Aurelia knows that Fred and George are hoping for a glimpse of Dudley. They want to test their Ton-Tongue Toffees on him. She bites on her lip to keep from smiling, if she was being honest, she would love to see them test their toffees on Dudley but she couldn't let Arthur suspect anything.

"Well," Arthur says, swinging his arms slightly, "Very — erm — very nice place you've got here."

The remark doesn't sit too well with the Dursleys. Vernon Dursley's face turned purple, Petunia Dursley starts chewing her tongue. However, they seem to be too scared to actually say anything. Arthur looks around the Dursley's house, he loves everything to do with Muggles, she can tell he's itching to go and examine the television and the video recorder.

"They run off eckeltricity, do they," He says knowledgeably, "Ah yes, I can see the plugs. I collect plugs . . . And batteries. Got a very large collection of batteries. My wife thinks I'm mad, but there you are."

Dudley comes into the room and once again, Aurelia turns her nose into a pig's nose, although he looks scared he glares at her. She turns it back to normal and smiles brightly at him, giggling: "I can do dogs and birds as well — and I can also do this!" She says and morphs her face into a copy of his. Nym had taught her well this summer. Aurelia smiles at him and Dudley yelps, hiding behind his mother, not that it does him much good.

"Ah, this is your cousin, is it, Harry," Arthur wonders, taking another brave stab at making conversation.

"Yep," Harry replies, "That's Dudley."

"Having a good holiday, Dudley," He asks kindly but he only receives a whimper in reply.

Fred and George enter the living room and look around. When they spot Dudley, their faces light up with identical evil grins. Oh, this should be fun, Aurelia thinks to herself.

"Ah, right," Arthur announces, brandishing his wand, "Better get cracking then — Incendio!"

Flames rise at once in the broken fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. Arthur takes a small drawstring bag from his pocket, unties it and takes a pinch of the powder inside, and throws it onto the flames, which turn emerald green and roar higher than ever.

"Off you go then, Fred," Arthur calls to Fred.

"Coming," Fred says cheerily.

He pretends to trip "Oh no — hang on —" Fred says in a fake tone of surprise, a bag of sweets spills out of his pocket and big, fat toffees in brightly colored wrappers roll in every direction.

Aurelia tries to hide the amused smile on her face but the tone of Fred's voice had really got to her, it's like he's not even trying to make it look or sound like an accident, she shakes her head at him. Fred scrambles around, cramming most of them back into his pocket, then gives the Dursleys a cheery wave. He steps forward and walks right into the fire "The Burrow!" and with a whooshing sound, Fred vanishes.

"Right then, George," Arthur instructs, "you and the trunk."

Harry helps George carry the trunk forward into the flames and turn it onto its end so that he could hold it better. Then, with a second whoosh, George cries out "the Burrow!" and vanishes too.

"Ron, you next!"

"See you," Ron says brightly to the Dursleys and he grins broadly at Harry, then steps into the fire, shouting "the Burrow!" and disappears.

"Well . . . Bye then," Harry says to the Dursleys but they don't say anything at all.

Aurelia smiles sympathetically at Harry, understanding what it was like to be ignored like that, Harry moves toward the fire, but just as he reaches the edge of the hearth, Arthur puts out a hand and holds him back. He looks at the Dursleys in amazement.

"Harry said goodbye to you," Arthur says, "Didn't you hear him?"

"It doesn't matter," Harry mutters to him, "Honestly, I don't care."

Aurelia's heart pangs as she thinks of how the Malfoys had ignored her on most days especially after the werewolf attack, when she had needed them most.

Arthur doesn't remove his hand from Harry's shoulder "You aren't going to see your nephew till next summer. Surely you're going to say goodbye?"

Mr. Dursley looks beyond angry and Aurelia's surprised he's not saying anything rude but Arthur's wand was still in his hand Mr. Dursley's eyes keep darting to it. Finally, in a very resentful voice he says: "Goodbye, then."

"See you," Harry says, taking another step to the fireplace but at that moment a horrible gagging sound erupts behind him, and his aunt starts to scream.

Aurelia jumps at first, the sound of the scream startling her but the she has to bite back another smile because she remembers that's probably just the twins' wonderful work at play. The three of them turn to look, Harry's cousin is no longer standing behind his parents but rather he's now kneeling beside the coffee table, gagging and sputtering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was protruding from his mouth — his tongue.

She snickers into her hand, Fred had to 'forgotten' to pick up one of his Ton-Tongue Toffees.

"Not to worry, I can sort him out," Arthur offers, advancing on Dudley with his wand outstretched, but Mrs. Dursley screams worse than ever and throws herself on top of Dudley, shielding him from Arthur.

"No, really," Arthur says desperately, "It's a simple process — it was the toffee — my son Fred — real practical joker — but it's only an Engorgement Charm — at least, I think it is — please, I can correct it —"

But, the Dursleys won't listen and their panic furthers, Mr. Dursley throws a china ornament at Arthur and Aurelia swear she sees red.

"Hey —" Aurelia snarls going to charge at him, ready to beat his ass for disrespecting Aurthur like that, she doesn't care that Mr. Dursley is a full grown man that could snap her like a twig. But Arthur steps in front of her, whether it's to shield Aurelia from more ornaments or to stop her from attacking Mr. Dursley, she doesn't know but it works.

"Now really," Arthur says angrily as he brandishes his wand, "I'm trying to help!"

When Mr. Dursley snatches up another ornament to throw at them, Aurelia tugs on Harry's shirt and gestures toward the roaring fire, she reckons, after thinking it over, that Arthur can handle Mr. Dursley just fine. Aurelia doesn't want Harry to get hit, she's certain that he gets worse but she'd rather not witness it because she'd be carted off to Azkaban. It seems that Arthur has the same idea as he tells them to go and so they do. Aurelia goes through first, Harry follows right behind.

"Did he eat it," Fred asks them eagerly as soon as they enter the Weasleys' kitchen.

"Yeah," Harry replies, straightening up, "What was it?"

Aurelia brushes some ash off of her clothes, hoping that Arthur is able to handle the situation alright there. She knows that he will but she can't help but worry.

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," Fred answers, "George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer."

The kitchen explodes with laughter. Harry looks around, his gaze lingers on Bill and Charlie, Aurelia realises this must be his first time meeting them.

"How are you doing, Harry," Charlie wonders, grinning at him. She then remembers Ron telling her that Harry and Hermione had given the baby dragon Hagrid had bought to him sometime back in first year or something along those lines. Aurelia shakes her head, only Harry Potter could do that kind of thing.

Then Bill — the Weasley with the best hair, in Aurelia's opinion; if she's being honest, she's rather jealous of his hair — stands up to shake hands with Harry, before they can say anything there's a faint popping noise.

Arthur apparates next to George, shouting angrily: "That wasn't funny Fred! What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?!"

"I didn't give him anything," Fred replies, "I just dropped it, didn't tell him to eat anything. It's not my fault he ate it, it's all his."

Aurelia laughs quietly, high-fiving George below the kitchen table.

"You knew he'd eat it," Arthur roars, "You dropped it on purpose you —"

"How big did his tongue get," George asks eagerly.

"It was four feet long before his parents let me shrink it," Arthur answers and they burst out laughing again.

"It isn't funny," He shouts, "This sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment against Muggles and my own sons —"

"We didn't give it to him just because he was a Muggle," Fred exclaims, offended by his father's accusation.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a bullying git," George adds, "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," Harry replies, earnestly.

"Well, you know the saying, payback is a motherfucker," Aurelia cuts in, cringing slightly after realising she cursed in front of Arthur, the girl's face goes pink with shame as she looks down.

Arthur looks at Aurelia, calmly saying: "Aurelia, please watch your language."

He turns back to Fred and George and continues to scold them, very angrily, might she add. Usually it's Molly who yells at them with an anger so intense, one might think she's about to rip their heads off. Aurelia's rather surprised to see Arthur Weasley so angry, she never thought that'd be possible before today.

"That's not the point," Arthur continues to shout and Aurelia figures she should go find Mae and see what she's up to.

"You wait until I tell your mother —"

"Tell me what?"

Now is definitely the time for Aurelia to leave, she doesn't want to witness the wrath of Molly Weasley, even if it's not directed at her. She heads upstairs without a second thought. "Rest in peace, Fred and George, they will be missed," Aurelia mutters to herself as she leaves the kitchen.

"What have they done this time," Molly demands to know, "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes —"

The twins are royally screwed. As Aurelia heads upstairs, she can hear Molly continue to chew out the twins. Her tone seems to be unusually calmer than normal so that means she's yet to find out what they've actually done.

"Back so soon, darling," Mae calls out, leaning on the railing of the floor above Aurelia, "You didn't maim the Dursleys, now did you?"

"No, Mr. Weasley wouldn't like that," Aurelia sighs, "Although, I almost did. The brute threw this decoration thing at him and I almost went bloody ape shit on him.

"He sounds like he deserved a good ass kicking," Mae says, "But, I'm proud you showed restraint."

"Thank you, it took a lot of it," Aurelia says jokingly and Mae laughs.

Ron and Ginny climb up the stairs, laughing as Harry and Hermione follows behind them.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room. Great long price lists for stuff they've invented, joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that," Ron says quietly.

Aurelia moves to Mae's side to get out of their way.

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things. We thought they just liked the noise," Ginny adds.

With squinted eyes, Harry stares confusedly at Mae, she stares back at him with a soft smile.

"Oh! That's our Aunt Mae, she's like our mum's sister but they're not actually related and they don't really like each other but she's here a lot because we like her and she's nice," Ron tells Harry who Aurelia realises at that moment, has never met Mae and she feels sort of bad for not introducing her to Harry like a good daughter should.

"Uh, hi . . . Er . . . ?"

"Hello, Harry, it's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you from Aurelia and Ellie. I'm Mae Macleod," Mae says, smiling brightly as she extends a bony hand for him to shake.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you too," Harry says awkwardly, shaking her hand. He looks between Aurelia and Mae with a forced smile on his face. It's not that it wasn't nice to meet Maeve Macleod as he's only heard good things about her from Aurelia and Ellie, it's just that being around Aurelia made him irrationally nervous. He liked Aurelia, she was nice, she was nothing like her brother and she never did that whole thing of 'wow, you're the Boy-Who-Lived!' when she met him, which a lot of people do.

But, Aurelia creeped him out, he couldn't bring himself to be around her long even though he considered her a good friend. He knew it was odd because she's never done anything to warrant such a feeling, perhaps it's because she was really pretty. Probably one of the prettiest girls he knew, of course, he had known her for almost four years so he's gotten pretty good at ignoring that feeling.

Aurelia beams at him, resting her chin on top of Mae's head which was easy for her as she's way taller than the redhead "What are you guys talking about?"

"Fred and George — anyway, most of the stuff — well, all of it, really — was a bit dangerous, and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms. . . . She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected," Ron continues on explains.

"And then there was this big row because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop," Ginny says.

"It was pretty nasty," Aurelia pipes in, "Or so Ellie says."

"They should open a joke shop, they'd be damned good at it," Mae says firmly, the four teens look at her in surprise, "I know it's not my place to say anythin' but, I think their joke shop could really go places."

Aurelia agrees with Mae wholeheartedly, Fred and George have wanted to open a joke for years, she's seen the products they've created and they're amazing. Next to Ellie and Lee, she's their biggest supporter. When Molly had burned their price and order lists, she had stayed up all night rewriting them. Aurelia'd pay for a place for them in full but they'd never let her do that.

At that moment, Percy opens his door and sticks his head out.

"Hi, Percy," Harry says.

"Oh, hello, Harry," Percy says, "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know — I've got a report to finish for the office — and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"Then cast a Silencing Charm on your room," Aurelia suggests.

Percy looks at her and his annoyed expression softens slightly "I suppose I could try that."

"We're not thundering, we're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic," Ron says irritably.

"What are you working on," Harry asks.

"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Percy replies, "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin — leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year —"

"That'll change the world, that report will," Ron says sarcastically, "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."

Percy turns pink.

"I think it's neat." Aurelia interjects in an attempt to save Percy from embarrassment, "Thicker cauldrons would be of great use for Plant Boy, it'd save him from Snape's wrath . . . Maybe."

"Plant Boy?" Ron echoes, "Who the bloody hell is that?"

"Neville," Aurelia says as though it should be obvious.

"Right," Ron says sarcastically, "How could I forget that."

Aurelia sticks her tongue out at his sarcastic remark and ten continues on in a very professional voice: "And like I said thicker cauldrons would be very useful for all of us, actually, I swear Snape has the thinnest ones ever imaginable."

Percy gives Aurelia an appreciative nod "She's right, Ron, you might sneer but unless some sort of international law is imposed we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow-bottomed products that seriously endanger —"

"Yeah, yeah, all right," Ron says as he, Harry, and Hermione continue up the stairs, Percy scowls at him.

"Don't be so rude, Ronald," Aurelia calls after him then turns to Percy, "Hey, Perce, mind if I hang —"

Percy slams his bedroom door shut.

Her smile fades "Or I can go do something else, that's fine."

But, it's not fine at all, how was she going to avoid Ginny now?

Mae pats her shoulder "He mustn't of heard you, wee moon."

"Right, right. I've got a poem to finish anyway," Aurelia says softly, which wasn't a lie but no poem was going to stop Ginny from confronting her and calling her out for what her father had done and ending their friendship because of it.

"Very well, I'm gonna go help Molls with dinner. I believe we're eating outside tonight," Mae says, smiling.

"That's alright, she can come hang out with me," Ginny says, looking smug as she practically had Aurelia cornered again.

"Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw," Aurelia mutters, quoting her favourite Muggle movie as she tries to find away out of this dreaded conversation with Ginny. She looks to Mae for help but Mae is already walking away and although Aurelia can't see her face, she knows that there's probably an amused smile on the redhead's face.

Aurelia tries to dart around Ginny but the younger girl is much too quick for that and her sun-kissed arm shoots out and blocks Aurelia's path "Not so fast, Blue, I have some questions for you."

Questions, Aurelia thinks as she deflates slightly, now _that_ doesn't sound all that bad "Uh, okay, er, fire away?"

"What did I do wrong," Ginny asks, giving her a sad look and she looks so vulnerable and it confuses Aurelia.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been ignoring me and when we do talk it's — it's bloody awkward! We've know each other for three years, I thought we were long past that so what did I do wrong?"

"Ginny, my father nearly killed you and you're acting like you're the one who did something wrong," Aurelia asks in disbelief, keeping her voice low so the other don't overhear her. It's not that the whole Weasley didn't know who was to blame for Ginny's near death experience but she'd rather not bring it up in front of them.

"Then why are you ignoring me," Ginny stresses, clutching her fists at her sides as she gives Aurelia a look that she swears pierces through her soul.

"My father nearly killed you," Aurelia repeats herself, that itself is pretty explanatory, she can't explain it any simpler than that.

"You tried to save me when you seen that diary he gave me and because of that I lead the basilisk to attack you," Ginny argues, "I could've — Malfoy could have killed you too, if you didn't glance in that mirror before that monster rounded the corner you would've died! I'm not special, I'm sure your father's killed lots of people, I mean he was a Death-Eater, wasn't he? But, that's no reason to ignore me, Blue!"

"It's all my fault though."

Realisation dawns on Ginny who exclaims "You daft, insecure, little — that's it! That's why you — I don't blame you, Blue!"

"You — you don't?"

"No," Ginny laughs in relief and then she's opening her arms wide and Aurelia is falling into them, laughing in relief just like Ginny, "You're so dumb, Blue, how could you even think that I would blame you for such a thing?"

"I don't bloody know," Aurelia laughs, clinging to Ginny, beyond thrilled to have her favourite Weasley back. Now that she thinks of it, she doesn't really know how it would be her fault. If she had known that it was her father that had slipped that book into Ginny's possessions she would've either called him out or taken the book for herself but she hadn't. Aurelia had not seen that book until it was too late and when she did try to help Ginny, well, it didn't go well but she did try to do the right thing.

"Never assume that shit again, Blue, or so help me, I'll kick your bloody ass," Ginny threatens, squeezing Aurelia tightly and rocking her back and forth for good measure.

"Dually noted," Aurelia laughs, pulling away from Ginny so that she can wipe the tears from her own eyes.

"I need to tell you something though," Ginny says, looking nervous once again which makes Aurelia nervous because she thought this whole heavy discussion was done and over with.

"Aye, what is it," Aurelia asks but quite frankly she does not want to know.

"Um . . ." Ginny trails off, looking at something behind Aurelia who is to nervous to even bother to look at what had distracted Ginny. But, if she had turned and looked she would have seen a distraught but angry looking Mae standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up and shaking her head at Ginny.

"Aye," Aurelia says, encouraging Ginny to spit it out without being rude.

"It's a total subject change, Blue, but I met this cute Ravenclaw girl and we have Transfiguration together but you wouldn't even believe it but I can't talk to her, she's just so bloody cute that I get distracted," Ginny exclaims.

Ginny's sudden change in attitude would have given Aurelia whiplash if not for the fact Aurelia was just so relieved that what Ginny wanted to talk about had nothing to do with what happened in Aurelia's second year.

"Really, wow, you must tell me more!"  
  


* * *

* * *

**HOURS LATER, GINNY** and Aurelia sit out on the Weasley's lawn, shoulder to shoulder, laughing loudly as though nothing had come between them; it was like the good old times. Bill and Charlie both have their wands out, making two battered old tables fly high above the lawn, smashing into each other, each attempting to knock the other's out of the air. Fred, George, and Ellie cheering them along and Aurelia and Ginny are laughing over them. Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocks one of its legs off.

"YES MOTHERFUCKER," Ellie bellows loudly, pointing in Fred's face before turning to George and snogging him aggressively.

Aurelia hears a window being opened, shortly after she hears Percy bellow out: "Will you keep it down?!"

"Sorry, Perce! How're the cauldron bottoms coming on," Bill calls out.

"Very badly," Percy replies peevishly, slamming his window shut.

Aurelia lowers her gaze to see Arthur, Molly, and Mae standing in front of the kitchen window which overlooked the backyard. Arthur and Molly looked surprised while Mae looked smug, Arthur hands over something to Mae who takes it eagerly as she laughs.

After that Bill and Charlie direct the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then with a flick of his wand, Bill reattaches the table leg and conjures tablecloths from nowhere. And by seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry, Mae, Ellie, and Aurelia sat themselves down to enjoy a nice dinner. Mae sits next to Aurelia who sits next to Percy, while Elliot sits next to George.

Aurelia grabs some ham and potatoes as she listens in on the conversation Percy is having with Arthur "I've told Mr. Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday," Percy says, "That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, it's extremely busy in our department just now, what with all the arrangements for the World Cup. We're just not getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman —"

"I like Ludo," Arthur says mildly, "He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble — a lawnmower with unnatural powers — I smoothed the whole thing over."

"Oh Bagman's likable enough, of course," Percy says dismissively, "But, how he ever got to be Head of Department . . . When I compare him to Mr. Crouch! I can't see Mr. Crouch losing a member of our department and not trying to find out what's happened to them. You realize Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"

"Yes, I was asking Ludo about that," Arthur replies then frowns, "He says Bertha's gotten lost plenty of times before now — though I must say, if it was someone in my department, I'd be worried. . ."

"Oh. Bertha's hopeless, all right. I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth . . . But all the same, Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr. Crouch has been taking a personal interest, she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr. Crouch was quite fond of her — but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she probably misread the map and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However —" Percy lets out an sigh and takes a deep swig of his drink, "We've got quite enough on our plates at the Department of International Magical Cooperation without trying to find members of other departments too. As you know, we've got another big event to organize right after the World Cup."

_The Triwizard Tournament_ , Aurelia thinks with a shudder.

Percy clears his throat, glancing toward the end of the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sitting. "You know the one I'm talking about, Father," He raises his voice slightly, "The top-secret one."

"You mean —" Aurelia begins to say but Mae clamps at hand over her a mouth.

"Don't you dare, Asterope Aurelia," Mae hisses in her ear, "You are not supposed to know just yet."

Aurelia sighs dramatically but drops it and grabs some more potatoes "When will we be going dress shopping, Mae?"

"Some time after the World Cup, have you thought of what kind of dress you want, perhaps I could make you one?"

"Something extravagant and yellow . . . Maybe a pale pink colour."

Mae rolls her eyes "O' course, yellow, why did I even bother asking," she says playfully.

"To be polite, I suppose," Aurelia drawls out teasingly then she glances around the table, her green eyes landing on Molly who is fussing over Bill.

"Mum, no one at the bank gives a damn how I dress as long as I bring home plenty of treasure," Bill says patiently.

"And your hair's getting silly, dear," Molly tells him, "I wish you'd let me give it a trim. . ."

"I like it," Ginny says, "You're so old-fashioned, Mum. Anyway, it's nowhere near as long as Professor Dumbledore's!"

"Long hair is the Shiiiiiitake Mushrooms . . . It suits you, Willy," Aurelia pipes in.

Bill rolls his eyes at the silly nickname and her very lame attempt at covering up her cursing.

"That's true," Ellie agrees, jumping into their conversation and leaving the one he had been in with the twins and Charlie, "Long hair and eyeliner on guys is positively lovely."

"It sounds like you just described yourself there, Ellie."

"Is that something you're into, Bill," He asks teasingly, giving the older boy a wink.

George chokes on his drink, narrowing his eyes at Bill and Ellie.

"I'm into that on girls. Sorry to disappoint," Bill jokes.

"It's no disappointment at all, besides, I've got the better Weasley brother who totally digs it," Ellie jokes back which causes Bill to laugh in disbelief.

The entire dinner table falls silent as Ellie and George had sort of just come out and confirmed what they had had all been thinking but then Ellie laughs loudly and turns back to the twins, throwing his arm around George's shoulder and he agrees with Charlie who's talking about the Quidditch World Cup. Leaving no room for anyone to question it, or perhaps no one had any questions. As far as Aurelia was concerned, she was just glad that Ellie was happy.

"It's got to be Ireland," Charlie says thickly, through a mouthful of potato, "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," Ellie says.

"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," Charlie says shortly, "I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."

"What happened," Harry asks eagerly.

"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," Charlie replies gloomily, "Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."

"Scotland was a disaster," Ellie groans, sounding more than disappointed.

"So, just like your life," Aurelia teases.

Ellie glares at her then smiles sweetly "You mean just like your life? I'm not the disaster of our family here."

"What? I hope you don't mean me," Aurelia says feigning shock.

"Please, kids," Mae buts in, "There's no competition, the entire Black Family is a disaster."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [COVERS FROM DEMONICASTUDIOS ](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b6d80203c0838348b9fe44aaca22a474/fd091ce97a4f994f-64/s400x600/3b00c43758c5c8225f771cb05f3c9bc8a7ea4ce9.jpg)
> 
> SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE KIDS IN THE BACK: MAEVE MACLEOD DESERVES ONLY LOVE AND HAPPINESS!! SHE'S ONLY DONE TWO THINGS WRONG IN HER LIFE!!! I'm literally so much happier that I've brought her back, Adelpha could never replace Mae and I can't believe I tried that shit. Although I adored Adelpha in her own book ( Yellow | no longer published on AO3 ) because she was actually her own character whereas in Make Them Gold she was nothing more than a Mae replacement with a bit of ✨spice✨. Ginny and Aurelia's friendship owns all my uwus, Aurelia relationships with all the Weasleys in general own all my uwus! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!/
> 
> word count: 7,299


	7. Squib Wars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which molly weasley ruins everything, a continuing saga known as the 'squib wars' . . . 

****

**CHAPTER FIVE** :

 **005 ||** Squib Wars

* * *

**THE MORNING OF** the Quidditch World Cup is an early one and usually Aurelia is impartial to early mornings but on this particular morning she finds herself in a foul mood. She reasons with herself that it's because she has to climb Stoatshead Hill at such an ungodly hour in the morning but as she looks out Ginny's window she can see the full moon peaking out through some clouds and she knows it's not the hill that's making her feel so pissy.

"Merlin, this is worse than my period," Aurelia grumbles to herself as she sits up on the mattress, she lightly pushes Ginny's hand off of her stomach. Ginny's bed is right next to her mattress and the two girls had fallen asleep talking to themselves, Ginny's leg hung off her mattress and so did her arm, at this Ginny stirs.

"What's worse that what," Ginny mumbles sleepily, trying to open her eyes but failing.

"Nothing," Aurelia whispers, gently placing Ginny back into her bed properly and tucking her in, Ginny tries to insist that Aurelia tell her but it comes out as a jumbled mess of word that are too quiet to hear. After that Aurelia heads downstairs to see if anyone's up already.

Mae, Ellie, Molly, and Arthur are up and Molly and Mae are already starting on breakfast which means they're planning on waking up the kids soon. Upon seeing Aurelia enter the kitchen, Mae pauses in her scrambling of the eggs to come over and kiss Aurelia's head "Good morning, my darling."

"Morning, mu — Mae," Aurelia mumbles, wiping the sleep from her eyes as she kisses Mae's cheek.

"Breakfast's almost done, love, are any of the other girls up?"

Aurelia shakes her head "Gin woke up for a bit but I think she's gone right back to sleep and Hermione's been sleeping like a rock since her head hit the pillow."

"Alright, well, I'll get the girls, Molls, you want to get the boys," Mae asks, glancing at Molly who nods.

"Look after the bacon will you, Blue," Molly asks politely before Aurelia can respond, Ellie snorts loudly looking up from his book he had been reading.

"Don't do that, she'll burn this place down. I'll do it," Ellie says jokingly, putting his book down and then getting up to watch the stove. Aurelia sticks her tongue out at him behind his back but somehow he must know that she's doing it because he says "I'll cut it off, Blue, I swear on Merlin's left ballsack."

He wouldn't, he's surprisingly too squeamish to do such a thing so Aurelia sticks out her tongue again, this time Ellie ingores her.

Molly and Mae had already left the kitchen so all Pollux gets is a "Language," from Arthur, who doesn't even glance away from his paper.

Aurelia takes out her wand and uses it to turn on the kettle, it's not until she feels Arthur's burning gaze on the back of her neck that she realises that she wasn't supposed to do that as she's underage. She often forgets this because Mae lets them use magic all the time at Almerry Castle, says the trace on them won't work there because of what Aurelia assumes is some kind of ancient magic. Of course, Aurelia isn't going to get into trouble as this is a Pureblood household but she knew Molly and Arthur frowned upon the use of underage magic. She smiles sheepishly and tucks her wand back into its' holster.

Aurelia doesn't often use underage magic unless she's seen someone else do it first, she's always witnessed her Aunt Andy turn the kettle on with a silent wave of her wand, Aurelia doesn't even know the name of the spell, she just knows the movement. She isn't _that_ good at magic to do underage magic often. Sitting down at the table across from Arthur, Aurelia waits for the kettle to boil and she drifts off as she waits.

When she opens her eyes again, George is standing behind her, yawning loudly as he asks "Where's Bill and Charlie and Per — per — Percy?"

All the boys are standing in the kitchen, Mae had returned to cooking breakfast, Ellie is sitting back at the table and is reading his book again. Aurelia wonders how long she had dozed off for, there's a steaming cup of tea made just the way she likes it in front of her and to her right Harry is taking a seat.

"Well, they're apparating, aren't they," Molly replies to George, placing the bacon in a basket on the kitchen table.

"In other words, they're still sleeping," Aurelia says grumpily, narrowing her eyes at nothing. She rests her chin on her fist, sighing as she does so, those lucky little shits.

"Aye, so they can have a bit of a lie in," Mae adds then looks to Molly for confirmation, Molly nods.

Fred grumpily pulls his bowl of porridge towards him, Aurelia laughs softly at the disdained expression on his face although she's rather bitter that they got to sleep in more too. Fred gives Aurelia a look and whispers: "Those lucky gits."

"Why can't we apparate too," George asks.

"Because you're not of age and you haven't passed your test," Molly snaps.

George looks taken back by his mother's sharp tone, once again Aurelia laughs quietly, shaking her head and smiling.

"And where have those girls got to," Molly wonders, shaking her head as she bustles out of the kitchen.

Aurelia follows shortly after her as she still needs to brush her hair and teeth and grab her bag of things for the trip. After doing those things, Aurelia hoists her messenger bag over her shoulder and then puts on her sun-shaped gold necklace. She pauses in front of Fred and George's room, the door's open a crack and the lights are off. Aurelia smirks, _should she_? She thinks for a moment before nodding to herself, placing her hand on their door, _she should_. As she exits the twins' room she bumps into Hermione and Ginny. Hermione stares her down, suspicious.

"Good morning, Hermione, Ginny."

Hermione raises her eyebrow "What are you up to?"

"Oh, just leaving a surprise for the twins." Aurelia answers as nonchalantly as she can. At this Ginny snickers while Hermione rolls her eyes, then the three of them head downstairs. The kitchen is looking more lively than it had been before Aurelia went upstairs. Mae ruffles her hair as she passes by to take a seat at the table.

"Why do we have to be up so early," Ginny asks, rubbing her eyes and sitting down at the table.

"We've got a bit of a walk," Arthur replies.

"Walk," Harry asks, "What? Are we walking to the World Cup?"

"If that's the case, do you really think I'd be going, Harold," Aurelia snorts.

Harry gives her a look.

"No, no, that's miles away," Arthur says, smiling, "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup —"

"George," Molly says sharply, they all jump.

"What," George asks, in an innocent tone that deceives nobody.

"What is that in your pocket?"

"Nothing!"

"Don't you lie to me!"

Molly points her wand at George's pocket and says: "Accio!"

Several small, brightly coloured objects zoomed out of George's pocket; he tries to grab for them but misses, and they speed right into Molly's outstretched hand.

"We told you to destroy them," Molly scolds furiously, holding up what are unmistakably more Ton-Tongue Toffees, "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!"

It's an unpleasant scene that upsets Aurelia, she knows how hard the twins had worked on the Ton-Tongue-Toffees, Ellie looks close to tears as he tugs on Mae's shirt for help.

"Accio! Accio! Accio," Molly shouts, and toffees zoomed from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans.

"We spent six months developing those," Fred shouts at his mother as she begins to throw the toffees away.

Mae grabs the rest from Molly "Come on, Molls . . . They worked hard on those . . . I know they don't use them right but that's no reason to destroy their hard work! Just put them to the side until they get back."

Molly rounds on Mae "You stay out of this," then Molly rounds on the twins again and shrieks "What a fine way to spend six months! No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

"Molls, please, they're just having fun! You can't deny that these are brilliant, they can make good money off of this . . ."

"I told you to stay out of this, Mae! Stop telling me how to raise my children, what would you know, you just let Aurelia and Ellie do whatever they want! You're no —" Molly stops herself, realising that she's about to cross a line.

Mae's expression hardens, as does Ellie's and Aurelia's because they know what Molly had meant to say.

"I'm 'no' what?" Mae questions her, her once harden expression turning into a bitter smile, daring Molly to say it.

Molly gulps and shakes her head, mumbling: "Nothing, nothing."

"No, go on, Molls . . . Say it, I'm 'no' what," Mae says, crossing her arms over her chest as she raises an eyebrow, the room goes silent and tense.

But, Molly bows her head and refuses to say anything more, Mae gives Molly a cold stare and slides the Ton-Tongue Toffees she had managed to save into her pocket and she addresses the twins and Ellie "You three ain't getting these until after the World Cup, you understand me, boys."

The twins and Ellie nod their heads, they know better than to cross Mae even if she's usually laid back, and never goes through with her threats.

All is not friendly in the atmosphere as the group takes to their departure for the Quidditch World Cup. Molly is still glowering as she kisses Arthur on the cheek, but the older woman isn't glowering as much as the twins are. Fred and George hoist their rucksacks onto their backs and walk out the door without so much as a word to their mother, Ellie follows behind them.

"Well have a lovely time. And behave yourselves," She calls out to the twins' and Ellie's retreating backs, neither of them look back or answers.

"I'll send, Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday," Molly says to Arthur, as he, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mae, and Aurelia set off across the dark yard after Fred, George, and Ellie.

It's chilly and the moon is still out, the only sign that dawn is drawing closer is the bright greenish tinge along the horizon. Aurelia wraps her yellow corduroy jacket around her thin frame as she slows down to her mum's pace.

"Mae, you alright," Aurelia asks.

Mae fakes a smile and nods her head "O' course, I am . . . Molly doesn't —"

"I think you're a mother," Aurelia says, "And so does Ellie! Hell, he even calls you 'mum'! You're just as much a mother as Molly is!"

Molly and Mae surprisingly get into this fight a lot, they fight a lot about a whole bunch of stuff but no matter what the fight is about, always lead to Molly pulling the whole 'you're not real mother' card no matter what had started the fight. Aurelia doesn't think it's very fair of Molly to say because she doesn't think that Mae can have her own.

When Aurelia was little she would always pester Mae, asking why she didn't have any children of her own because she was such a good adoptive mum to Ellie and when she'd ask that, Mae would get really sad. Mae would kiss her on the forehead and say: "'Cause, wee moon, I'm happy with the ones I have.". Eventually, Aurelia stopped asking especially after realising that Mae would tear up when she asked. She assumes that for whatever reasons, Mae just can't have children which is terribly sad because Aurelia's rather certain that Mae wanted children that shared her blood.

"She really needs to stop doing that to you," Aurelia says firmly.

"I know," Mae sighs, "But that's how Molly is and how we've always been and I've learned to ignore."

"You shouldn't have to ignore it because you shouldn't be hearing those things. You don't deserve it, mum," Aurelia says and she means it.

Nearly every time that Molly and Mae get together, especially in the recent years, Molly ends up throwing that 'real mother' bullshit in Mae's face — the great 'Squib Wars' as Ellie calls it.

Mae smiles softly and pats Aurelia's head "Thank you, wee moon. Go on now, I'm sure you'd much rather hang out with the others."

"But —"

I'll be fine, you needn't worry about me, wee moon."

"Okay . . . If you're sure . . ."

"I'm positive, now get," Mae insists, gently shoving Aurelia towards the twins and Ellie.

Aurelia in her exhausted state, struggles to catch up to the twins and Elliot, who are walking a great deal faster than the rest of the group.

"Fred! George! Ellie," She calls out to them, "Wait up!"

Fred slows down a bit while it looks as though George has sped up and Ellie, like the lovesick fool that he is, naturally follows his lead.

"You dinks," Aurelia says, walking faster, determined to catch up with them, "I'll fight you if you don't slow the frick down!" at this remark, Fred chuckles allowing Aurelia to catch up to him. She looks over her shoulder to see that Arthur is occupied in a conversation with Harry, Aurelia then reaches into her pockets pulling out a handful of Ton-Tongue Toffees.

"What? Where did you get those," Fred asks, disbelief lacing his tone.

"I pulled them out of my ass," Aurelia replies as she rolls her eyes "Where do you think I got them, you dafter wanker, I got them from your room when I went to get my stuff. I know you and George wouldn't be able to resist bringing them. But as always, I know you two would be caught and as always, I was right —"

Fred laughs as he exclaims: "Hey! We do not —"

"Tut, tut. lemme finish," She scolds playfully, Fred falls silent, playfully scowling at Aurelia. "So I grabbed some when I passed your room. You're welcome."

"Thanks, Blue, how can I ever repay you," Fred says mockingly as he takes the Ton-Tongue Toffees from her hand, "Oh, Georgie, look what our little prankster in training has done."

"Ha, ha, ha. I'm am not your prankster in training. I don't do pranks as religiously as you do, but if I did, I wouldn't get caught like you guys do."

"Hey! We do not," Ellie exclaims.

"Sure you guys don't, Ellie."

"Fuck you, Lia."

Fred splits up the Ton-Tongue Toffees Aurelia had given him between Geroge and Ellie.

Stoatshead Hill appears in the distance, Aurelia groans "Aww, shite. Please don't tell me we have to climb that, Mr. Weasley."

"Watch your language, Blue. Yes, we have to climb it," Arthur answers, "And please call me, Arthur."

"Aww, Mr. Arthur! Can't we go around it?"

"Arthur! Just call me, Arthur, not Mr. Weasley or Mr. Arthur, just Arthur and no, Blue we cannot go around it."

She groans again.

None of the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Ellie, Mae, or Aurelia have a breath to spare for talking as they climb up Stoatshead Hill. She almost falls three times climbing the hill, although Aurelia can run faster than most and not get out of breath, she despises physical activity greatly, especially when it comes to climbing. Even after the werewolf attack had enhanced her senses and stamina, Aurelia still despises it, unless it's Quidditch.

"Whew," Arthur pants, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his sweater, "Well, we've made good time — we've got ten minutes."

Hermione comes over the crest of the hill, quickly followed by Aurelia, who is, of course, last. Both girls are clutching a stitch in their side.

"I want death," Aurelia whines, wanting nothing more to lie on the ground and fall asleep.

"You always want death," Ginny says.

"That's true," She agrees half-heartedly with a shrug of her shoulders, leaning onto Ginny's arm and letting out a huge yawn.

"Now we just need to find the portkey," Arthur says, putting his now clean glasses back on. He squints at the groun, "It won't be big . . . Come on . . ."

They had only been looking around for the Portkey for a couple of minutes when a familiar shout rings through the air. "Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!" Two figures are silhouetted against the starry sky on the other side of the hilltop.

"Amos," Arthur calls out to the voice, he strides over to the two people and the group follows behind him. Arthur shakes hands with a ruddy-faced wizard of the name, Amos Diggory, who holds a mouldy boot in his other hand.

"This is Amos Diggory, everybody." Arthur says, introducing the ruddy-faced wizard to the group, "He works for the Department for the regulation and control of magical creatures. I think you all know his son, Cedric."

Aurelia rushes forward to hug her fellow Hufflepuff friend. "Diggs," She exclaims, startling him as she hugs him tightly. She hadn't seen him at all so far this summer which is unusual because Mae happens to be very great friends with Cedric's mum who had a cousin, now dead thanks to Death-Eaters, that was a Squib which is how Mae met the Diggorys.

Growing up, Aurelia hadn't met them nor did Mae talk about them but after she was sorted into Hufflepuff and met Cedric in the weirdest way possible, Aurelia learned about Mae's connection with the Diggorys. Ever since then, Aurelia and Cedric had been good friends, they were practically siblings.

"Hello, Blue," He greets, hugging her in return.

"Hi," Cedric says looking at the group, everybody says it back with the exception of Fred and George, who merely nod. The twins still have not forgiven Cedric or even Aurelia for beating their team in the first Quidditch match of the previous year. They were at least on speaking terms with Aurelia now but they ignored her for a whole week after the match.

"Long walk, Arthur," Amos asks Arthur.

"Not too bad," Arthur replies, "We just live on the other side of the village."

"Not to bad," Aurelia echoes in disbelief, "Why, Mr. Arthur, it was terrible. I can't feel my legs."

"Don't be so dramatic, my darling," Mae says, shaking her head as she smiles at Amos, "How's Genevieve?"

"She's good, she a bit grumpy this morning. We had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced," Amos says to Arthur and Mae, "I tell you I'll be glad when he passes his apparation test. Still, not complaining . . . Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sack full of galleons — and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy. All these yours, Arthur?"

"Oh, no. Only the redheads." Arthur replies, "And, you know Blue and Ellie, Mae's children. This is Hermione Granger — a friend of Ron's, and this is Harry Potter, anoth —"

"Merlin's beard!" Amos gasps, "Harry? Harry Potter?!"

This always happens, Aurelia knows this makes Harry uncomfortable. He's the boy who lived, the boy who defeated the Lord Voldemort, Harry's been famous ever since that night, he didn't even know that until his eleventh birthday, after all, he grew up with Muggles, his aunt and uncle never once told him about the wizarding world while he grew up. Aurelia remembers meeting Harry on the train four years ago, during their first year at Hogwarts, it had been a rather awkward encounter but it hadn't lasted long because she had a toad to find.

"Ced's talked about you, of course," Amos says "He told us all about playing against you last year. . . I said to him. I said — Ced, that'll be something your grandchildren, that will — you beat Harry Potter!"

The twins scowl once again, Aurelia expects Cedric's father to brag about that, although he meant no harm by it, he's only proud of his son. That's just how Amos is and always has been.

Cedric, however, looks downright embarrassed "Harry fell off his broom, dad," Cedric mutters, "I told you, it was an accident and it was technically Aurelia who beat him, she's our seeker after all."

"Yes, but she didn't fall off her broom," Amos laughs slapping Cedric's back, "Always modest our Ced, always the gentleman, but the best man — er, woman — won. I'm sure Harry would agree, wouldn't you? One falls off their broom, the other stays on, you don't need a genius to tell which one is a better flier," Amos laughs loudly.

"Harry was literally attacked by a Dementor while on a broom, hundreds of feet in the air but he's totally not a good flier at all." Aurelia says sarcastically and Amos falls silent realising that she had a point and he has the decency to look bashful as he drops the subject.

A moment goes by and then Arthur speaks up, directing everyone's attention back to him. "Must be nearly time," Arthur says quickly, pulling out his watch

"Does your dad need some ice for that burn," Fred asks Cedric as he pulls Aurelia into a one-armed hug.

Cedric laughs lightly and punches Aurelia's shoulder gently "You got him, didn't you, Blue?"

"You fucking bet I did."

"And you're never going to let him forget it, are you?"

"Absolutely not."

"Do you know whether we're waiting for anymore," Mae asks, looking between Amos and Arthur.

"No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets," Amos replies, "There aren't any more of us in the area, are there?"

"None that I know of," Arthur says, "Yes, it's a minute off, we'd better get ready," Arthur looks at the group, his gaze lingering on Harry and Hermione. "You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do," Arthur explains.

Aurelia knows all about Portkeys, she's used them only a couple times and they always make her nauseous. She even prefers Apparation over Portkeys. She eyes the mouldy boot warily "Why does it have to be a bloody Portkey?"

The group crowds around the old boot, that's being held out by Amos. They stand in a tight circle, and she can't help but think that this might look pretty odd if a Muggle happens to walk by. A group of redheads, a badly dressed old man, and three teenagers standing around an old boot will certainly give off some warning signs, if a Muggle had saw them they'd probably think they're in a cult that worships old mouldy boots.

"Three . . ." Arthur mutters, still eyeing his watch "Two . . . One . . ."

She yelps out as she finds herself being blown about in the wind, holding onto a damn moldy boot for dear life, this Quidditch World Cup is really testing her. She regrets asking those tickets. Everyone's shoulders are bumping into each other, the wind's howling in Aurelia's ears, she squeezes her eyes shut. As suddenly as it starts, it stops.

Aurelia feels her feet hit solid ground and she struggles to keep herself from toppling over. Her windswept hair is covering most of her view but through her thick strands of hair, she can see that Fred, Hermione, George, Ron, Ginny, and Harry are on the ground entangled in each other. She looks to her left, making herself even dizzier than she already is, Cedric, Arthur, Amos, Ellie, and Mae are standing perfectly still looking as if nothing had happened with the exception of them looking very windswept.

Then without warning, Aurelia falls over, she sighs in defeat as her face came in contact with the wet grass. She wonders if this is how Nymphadora feels on a daily basis.

Mae laughs loudly and helps her up "I used to hate Portkeys too, are you alright, wee moon?"

Aurelia nods as Mae brushes the dirt off her shirt.

Ellie snickers as he looks around "This is certainly going to be fun finding our tent. . . Isn't it, mum? Good thing we have a Hufflepuff with us because they're particularly good —"

Aurelia karate chops him in the throat with zero hesitation and he chokes on his words "Let. That. Die," She seethes.

"Hey! What have I told you about karate choppin' Elias in the throat," Mae scolds, "That's dangerous! Karate chop him in the stomach, it's less harmful but just as painful!"  
  


* * *

* * *

  
**ONCE THEY FIND** their tents and they had made themselves at home in it, Arthur has Aurelia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione go and get water for the camp. Aurelia isn't paying much attention to her surroundings, she's busy trying to ignore the smell of damp grasp and and the flashes of memories and sounds it brings. From the snarling to the screaming, the burning and the wet feeling of —

Ron breaks her train of thought, asking: "Er, is it just my eyes or has everything gone green?"

Aurelia turns her hair green which isn't that hard as she's feeling a bit queasy from her thoughts and then she does her best to smile teasingly at Ron.

"Don't mess with me like this, Blue, my brain is too fragile for that," He says, nudging her shoulder.

The four of them had walked into a patch of tents covered in thick growths of shamrocks. From behind them, a familiar voice calls out their names. Aurelia can recognize that voice anywhere. It's Seamus Finnigan. He's sitting in front of one of the tents with his mother and Dean Thomas, Aurelia wiggles her eyebrows at Seamus and he glares at her. She'll have to tell Ginny about this; Ginny has this bet with a twins on how long it will take those two to get together, she thinks half the school is in on it.

"Like the decorations," Seamus wonders, "The ministry isn't too happy about it."

"Ah, and why shouldn't we show our colours," Mrs. Finnigan says.

"You should see what the Bulgarians have dangling all over their tents. You'll be supporting Ireland, of course," She adds, eyeing them beadily, when they assure her they are indeed supporting Ireland, they set off again.

"Like we'd say anything else surrounded by that lot." Ron quips.

Aurelia laughs and then suggests: "Let's go see what the Bulgarians have on their tents!"

Harry nods in agreement then points to a large patch of tents upheld, where the Bulgarian flag — white, green, and red — is fluttering in the breeze. The tents here haven't been bedecked with plant life, but each and every one of them have the same poster attached to it, a poster of a very surly face with heavy black eyebrows.

Aurelia recognises the face as Viktor Krum, he happens to be both Ron and Ellie's celebrity crush. She had to hear Ellie rant and rave all about Viktor Krum all summer, it's almost as bad as when he rants and raves about George and his 'cute shoulders'. Aurelia can't understand how anyone can think shoulders are cute. Ellie's strange but Aurelia can't say anything because he has too much dirt on her that he's not afraid to use.

"Krum," Ron says quietly.

"What," Hermione asks.

"Krum," Ron replies, "Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!"

"He looks really grumpy," Hermione says, looking around at the many Krums blinking and scowling at them.

Aurelia giggles loudly and says: "He does, doesn't he?"

"Really grumpy," Ron echoes, "Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable. He's really young too. Only just eighteen or something. He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see."

Finally they make their way to the water source, there's already a small queue for the water tap in the corner of the field, the four of them join in right behind a pair of men in a heated argument. One of them is a very old wizard with a long beard wearing a flowery nightgown, the other is clearly a Ministry wizard, he's holding out a pair of pinstriped trousers almost crying with exasperation.

"Just put them on, Archie! You can't walk around like that, the Muggle at the gate's already getting suspicious —"

"I bought this in a Muggle shop," The old wizard retorts stubbornly, "Muggles wear them."

"Muggle women wear them, Archie! Not men, they wear these," The Ministry wizard argues brandishing the pinstriped trousers.

"I'm not wearing them," Archie says simply, "I like a healthy breeze around my privates, thanks."

Hermione is overcome with a strong fit of giggles and she has to move away to gain her composure. Aurelia bites her lip to keep from giggling but she fails miserably and has to walk away just like Hermione. She stumbles over to a nearby tree and she leans against it for support. She's laughing so hard it hurt, Aurelia is struggling to regain her composure.

"What's so funny," An airy voice, Aurelia knows all too well, asks.

She takes a deep breath to calm herself "Lu — Luna, 'ello!" She exclaims, looking up to see Luna Lovegood standing before her, an empty bucket in her hands.

"Hello, Aurelia," Luna says in her usual dreamy tone, "How was your summer?"

"It was wonderful, Luna, thanks for asking! How was yours," Aurelia replies eagerly.

"Oh, it absolutely wonderful! Father and I Learned about Wrackspurts this summer, a very interesting creature," Luna explains.

"That sounds lovely. I think Harry and Ron have gotten some water, so we best head back to our tent. It was nice seeing you, Luna, I'll see you at school!"

"Okay, bye Aurelia, tell Ellie I said hello!"

"I will," Aurelia says, over her shoulder as she goes to grab an extra bucket of water from Ron to make the trip easier for him

Walking more slowly now, because of the weight of the water, they made their way back through the campsite. Here and there, they encounter more familiar faces: other Hogwarts students with their families. Oliver Wood, the old captain of Harry's House Quidditch team, who had just left Hogwarts, drags the four of them over to his parents' tent to introduce Harry, and tells them all, excitedly, that he had just been signed to the Puddlemere United reserve team.

Next they're hailed by Ernie Macmillan, a Aurelia's fellow Hufflepuff fourth year, and a little farther on they see Cho Chang, a very pretty girl who plays Seeker on the Ravenclaw team. She waves and smiles at Harry, who slopped quite a lot of water down his front as he waved back.

"Nice one, Harold," Aurelia snickers, earning a glare from Harry.

"Oh, like you're any better, Asterope."

"No offence, mate, but she kind of is," Ron says with a smirk, "She makes not only Ginny swoon but Fred too . . . Not to mention, half the people in our year."

More to stop his friends from teasing him further than anything, Harry hurriedly points out a large group of teenagers whom he had never seen before.

"Who d'you reckon they are," Harry asks, "They don't go to Hogwarts, do they?"

"'Spect they go to some foreign school," Ron replies, "I know there are others. Never met anyone who went to one, though. Bill had a penfriend at a school in Brazil . . . This was years and years ago . . . And he wanted to go on an exchange trip but Mum and Dad couldn't afford it. His penfriend got all offended when he said he wasn't going and sent him a cursed hat. It made his ears shrivel up."

Harry laughs, glancing again at the group of teenagers, a look of awe written across his face. Even after four years, Harry still gets surprised by what the Wizarding community has to offer, Aurelia smiles softly at the childlike wonder on his face.

"You've been ages," George exclaims when they finally return to the tent, "Did you get lost or something?"

"Of course, not, they have a Hufflepuff with them, they'd have found their way out of anything," Ellie says, grinning at Aurelia who glares back at him.

"We met a few people along the way," Ron replies.

"I saw Luna . . . She says 'Hi', Ellie," Aurelia tells Ellie who smiles at the mention of Luna, apparently Ellie and her are best friends. Aurelia's not sure how that came to be but she's never questioned it because she likes Luna well enough.

"You not got the fire started, yet," Ron asks.

"Dad's having fun with the matches," Fred says, glancing at his father.

Arthur's having no success at all in lighting the fire, but it's not for the lack of trying, splintered matches littered the ground around him. Despite not being able to light a match, looks as though he's having the time of his life.

"Oops," He says, lighting a match but he promptly drops it in surprise. For someone who is obsessed with Muggle objects, he's terrible at working them.

Aurelia laughs silently, she's suprised that Mae hasn't stepped in yet to help, then she looks around the tent and notices that she isn't in the tent.

"Where'd Mae go," Aurelia asks Ellie.

"I think mum went to discuss something with Uncle Amos, I think it has something to do with magical creatures."

"Oh, maybe it has to do something with another injured Kneazle and he needs Mae to help him heal it with her special healing ways. Oh I hope it's a Kneazle, they're so cute!"

"Yeah," Ellie snorts, "No, I think it has something to do with the Triwizard Tournament or something."

"Oh."

* * *

* * *

**BY THE TIME** , the get the fire started for lunch, Bill, Charlie, and Percy arrive.

"Just Apparated, Dad. Ah, excellent, lunch," Percy says loudly, as he along with the other three older boys come strolling out of the woods and towards the Weasley's tent.

They're halfway through their plates of eggs and sausages when Arthur jumps to his feet, waving and grinning at Ludo Bagman who happens to be striding towards them. "Aha! The man of the moment! Ludo!"

"Ahoy there," Bagman calls happily, he walks as though he's springs attached to the balls of his feet and is plainly in a state of wild excitement "Arthur, old man, what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming . . . And hardly a hiccough in the arrangements . . . Not much for me to do!"

Contrary to his statement, behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that is sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.

Percy hurries forward with his hand outstretched. Apparently his disapproval of the way Ludo Bagman runs his department does not prevent him from wanting to make a good impression.

Ellie rolls his eyes at this and mutters "What a suck up."

At this the twins snicker, George snickering the loudest.

Aurelia rolls her eyes "Leave him alone, he's just trying to make a good impression. His job is all that he has to be proud of."

"Puh-lease, he's been writing to Oliver bloody Wood constantly this summer. That's what George tells me," Ellie says, "Right, George?"

"Oh, yeah, non-stop," George confirms, "It's quite weird considering Percy hated Wood for just about his entire time at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, it's odd but that's not the point," Ellie says, "He's writing to Oliver Bloody Wood, he was the fittest guy at Hogwarts, I love you George, but come on, Wood was cute and Percy's writing to him every chance he has, now that's something to be proud of, not work."

George looks torn between being jealous and agreeing, he settles on saying: "Dad called Wood, Percy's boyfriend once and Percy didn't disagree. It just went over his head and he continued on with the conversation soooo . . . They're probably together, I can't believe they figured Percy out before us, we made it so obvious."

Ellie nods his head "We really did."

Meanwhile, Arthur is saying to Ludo: "This is my son Percy. He's just started at the Ministry — and this is Fred — no, George, sorry — that's Fred — Bill, Charlie, Ron — my daughter, Ginny — and Ron's friends, Hermione Granger, Asterope Black —"

Aurelia turns to that conversation upon hearing her full name. Arthur had looked her dead in the eye when he said it, when he say that she had heard, he carried on as if he hadn't used her dreaded first name. Her first name which she didn't hate but much preferred not to hear come out of someone's mouth.

"— Elliot Black, and Harry Potter."

Bagman does the smallest of double takes when he hears Harry's name, and his eyes perform the typical flick upward to the scar on Harry's forehead. Still, it's surprisingly calm reaction coming from Ludo Bagman, Aurelia had expected him to make a scene.

"Everyone," Arthur continues, "this is Ludo Bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him we've got such good tickets —"

Bagman beams and waves his hand as if to say it had been nothing and than he asks: "Fancy a flutter on the match, Arthur? I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first — I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland's front three are the strongest I've seen in years — and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a week-long match."

Ellie's grey eyes light up, looking like a little boy of Christmas Morning "Ooh, we're betting now? This should be fun!"

"It'll be so very," Aurelia says sarcastically, her and Hermione share a disinterested look.

Aurelia doesn't even have to look at the twins' faces to know they're sporting similar expressions. Aurelia enjoys herself a good bet, but a bet with Ludo Bagman? Yeah, no thanks. She'll pass.

"Oh, go on then, let's see . . . A Galleon on Ireland to win," Arthur says.

"Only a Galleon," Ludo says, sounding disappointed, "Very well, very well . . . Any other takers?"

"They're a bit young to be gambling, Molly wouldn't like —" Arthur says worriedly.

Fred cuts him off "We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts! That Ireland wins — but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand!"

Her eyebrows raise, _they're not serious! They're gonna give all their savings to this shady bitch without a second thought_?! He and George pool all their money for Ludo to take, Aurelia goes to protest but she's cut of by Percy who hisses: "You don't want to go showing Mr. Bagman rubbish like that —"

Ludo lets out a roar of laughter, finding the fake wand to be quite amusing.

"They're not rubbish! They're brilliant," Aurelia scolds Percy.

"That doesn't mean they have to show it to Mr. Bagman," Percy retorts.

"They mean no harm," Aurelia hisses.

"It's embarrassing," Percy hisses right back.

"It's not, you're just melodramatic!"

"Excellent! I haven't seen one that convincing in years! I'd pay five Galleons for that," Ludo laughs loudly.

Percy's eyes go wide and Aurelia shoots him an 'I-told-you-so' look.

"Boys," Arthur says under his breath, "I don't want you betting. That's all your savings. Your mother —"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur! They're old enough to know what they want! You reckon Ireland will win but Krum'll get the Snitch? Not a chance, boys, not a chance . . . I'll give you excellent odds on that one . . . We'll add five Galleons for the funny wand —"

"Fake wand," Aurelia corrects, giving him a dirty look

Ludo glances at her and his eyes go wide with terror but he quickly recovers himself, clearing his throat and whipping out a notebook and quill to write down the twins' names. Arthur looks helplessly to Mae, who had just returned but all she does is pat him on the back, making no move to stop the twins. Aurelia wants to stop them but she knows there's no use, they've made up their minds. She has a very bad feeling that Ludo is either going to rip them off or not pay them back at all if they win. She can easily solve that problem though, she can easily pay them back without them knowing. Aurelia'll just need Ludo's signature and maybe a little note from him. She's not going to let them lose this money. One of the things she had 'inherited' from her Aunt Bellatrix is her ability to create an excellent forgery, it was one of the few things that Aurelia wasn't bloody pissed about sharing in common with that women.

She puts a pretty little smile on her face and turns to Ludo Bagman, she bats her eyelashes as she asks: "Mr. Bagman, sir, could you perhaps sign this for me," Aurelia pulls out a crumbled piece of paper from the pocket of her yellow jumper, "And could you perhaps write 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' above it, it's my favourite quote from, uh, my favourite book To Kill a Mockingbird. It'd mean a lot coming from my favourite Quidditch player!"

Ludo smiles politely at her, nodding his head and taking the paper from her "To Kill a Mockingbird, huh? That's a popular Muggle's book, isn't it . . . Do you like Muggles?"

Aurelia narrows her eyes, knowing exactly what Ludo means by this. "Aye. I do," She replies stiffly, grinding her teeth.

He finishes the signature and hands the paper back to her "That's surprising considering your —"

"I am not my family, Bagman! I am my own person who doesn't like being told who she is or what she can like or do," Aurelia snaps bitingly, glaring murderously at him, she then turns on her heel. Aurelia smirks to herself, thanks for the note, bitch, it'll make an excellent forgery.

"Couldn't do me a brew, I suppose," Ludo asks, moving away from Aurelia with a nervous look on his face, "I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"Mr. Crouch? He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll," Percy says excitedly.

"Anyone can speak Troll, all you have to do is point and grunt," Fred says dismissively.

Aurelia covers her mouth to stop herself from laughing, Percy gives him a nasty glare as he tries to bring the kettle to boil over the fire.

"Any news of Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo," Arthur asks.

"Not a dicky bird, but she'll turn up. Poor old Bertha . . . Memory like a leaky cauldron and no sense of direction. Lost, you take my word for it. She'll wander back into the office sometime in October, thinking it's still July."

"You don't think it might be time to send someone to look for her," Arthur suggests tentatively.

"Barty Crouch keeps saying that," Ludo says.

"Then, maybe, I don't know I could be wrong, maybe you should do that," Aurelia suggests sarcastically.

Percy gives her a look of mild approval but hushes her all the same.

"— But, we really can't spare anyone at the moment. Oh — speak of the devil! Barty!"

Aurelia glances over her shoulder to see that Barty Crouch had apparated by the fireside and he doesn't look very pleased.

"Pull up a bit of grass, Barty," Ludo says brightly, patting the ground beside him.

"No thank you, Ludo," Barty says, sounding slightly impatient, "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the Top Box."

"Oh, is that what they're after," Ludo questions, "I thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. Bit of a strong accent."

"When you said he was daft, I didn't think you meant that daft," Aurelia whispers to Percy, who either doesn't hear her or ignores her, as he bows awkwardly in front of Barty.

"Mr. Crouch! Would you like a cup of tea," Percy asks breathlessly.

"Oh, "Yes . . . Thank you, Weatherby," Barty replies, looking at Percy in mild surprise.

Aurelia scowls at Barty "He's been working for you —"

Percy stabs her in the ribs with his bony elbow, giving her a glare before he busies himself with the kettle, his face bright pink. So, Aurelia does her best to swallow her rant, instead settling with snapping: "It's Weasley," at Barty Crouch.

"Oh," Barty says but then turns to Arthur and says: I've been wanting a word with you too, Arthur. Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you about your embargo on flying carpets."

Arthur heaves a deep sigh.

Ellie leans over and whispers in Aurelia's ear " _I can show you the world_."

Aurelia lets out a bark of laughter and quickly covers her mouth to muffle her uncontrollable giggles.

" _Shining, shimmering, splendid_ ," Ellie whispers again.

"St — st — stop," She wheezes.

He leans down to her ear and sings quietly: " _A whole new wooorld . . . Cup_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [NO ONE TELLS ME WHAT I CAN OR CANNOT DO . . . ](https://64.media.tumblr.com/565fe9bef9fc0bf531bf4e36014a1a89/be3b481fb65ac841-3f/s500x750/d6dc06d913dbd15167eb32eebda7e9a4432150ff.gif) made by [heroincs](https://www.quotev.com/heroincs) on quotev  
> [TREESTAR AESTHETIC](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8fb30ede6ac2505aace910702515adba/fd091ce97a4f994f-db/s500x750/5f5462c9c3724b2c02daab1763d1445eb32834ca.png) made by [eatyourdamnapples](https://www.quotev.com/eatyourdamnapples) on quotev
> 
> Aurelia and Cedric's friendship is SO pure and I can't wait for you to read more of it because it's my favourite AND I can't wait to destroy it come the third task of the Triwizard Tournament and when I say destroy it, I mean I absolutely going to DECIMATE their friendship, the angst of it all made me cry so,,,,, uh prepare yourselves. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 7,682


	8. A Veela After Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black meets a cute girl who is actually flirting with her? . . . 

****

**CHAPTER SIX** :

 **006 ||** ( Gimme!Gimme!Gimme! ) A Veela After Midnight

* * *

**AS THE TIME** draws near for the World Cup, the Weasleys and Aurelia's family start making their way to the stadium. Aurelia bounces on the heels of her feet as she walks beside Mae, behind them, a girl with a German accent speaks up "Your hair, it is very pretty!"

Aurelia looks over her shoulder, brown eyes landing on a very pretty girl — possibly a Veela or part Veela — the pretty girl's got olive-toned skin and heavily-lidded eyes, she's tall and radiates this weird feeling of power. There's a smirk on the girl's wine-coloured lips that makes her look as sly as a fox.

"Are — are you talk — talking about — about me," Aurelia stammers, pointing at herself.

The girl giggles "Yeah, I'm talking about you. You're the prettiest girl, I've seen all day."

Aurelia laughs loudly, trying to hide her blushing face in the neck of her yellow bomber jacket "Thank you."

The girl laughs as well "You are very velcome . . . I'm Noelle Edwyn-Godwin. Who are you?"

"I'm Aurelia Black, are you from Durmstrang?"

"Yep, are you from Hogwarts?"

"Yes."

Noelle smirks "Tell me, are all the girls from there this beautiful?"

Aurelia turns bright red. Noelle's flirting with her? Aurelia's rather certain she is. Noelle's called her pretty twice in under five minutes. _That's definitely flirting! Sweet Merlin! A pretty girl is actually flirting with me_!

"That's what Hogwarts is known for. Well, that and imminent danger," Aurelia says, giving Noelle a teasing smile.

Noelle picks up her pace so she can walk beside Aurelia "I've heard that they put their students into weird little houses. Why would they make so many houses for their students?"

Aurelia laughs "Oh! No, no! It's not like you think, there's only four houses! They use a hat to sort us into them . . . The hat also sings."

Noelle looks enthralled with every word that Aurelia's saying, she bites her lip and lets out a little giggle, brushing her shoulder against Aurelia's lightly. Aurelia can feel Mae's eyes burning into the back of her neck, watching her shameless flirt with a stranger. Aurelia thinks Mae shouldn't blame her because Noelle's far too pretty not to flirt with especially since Noelle started the flirting. Of course, the reason that Mae is staring at her could be because as far as the redhead was aware, Aurelia was straight. Yeah, she was horribly not straight when she interacted with Ginny and anyone with eyes could see it but she had never come out and said it.

"And what house are you in," Noelle asks sweetly.

"Hufflepuff," Aurelia replies with pride.

Something flashes in Noelle's eyes but then she giggles: "Hufflepuff makes me vink of a marshmallow!"

Aurelia giggles, staring at Noelle intently.

" _Soft and squash-able! Pathetic_ ," A raspy woman's voice spits faintly.

But before Aurelia can look around for the voice that she recognises somewhat, Noelle asks: "What team are you rooting for?"

"Oh! I'm not really sure, I'm mostly here just to watch the game! Are you rooting for any team in particular?"

"Bulgaria, of course," Noelle replies, flashing a Bulgarian flag pin on her navy, blue cloak.

"Ooh, my cousin's supporting them! He's definitely rooting for Krum, I think Krum's cool, he's an amazing seeker."

"Yep, he's great," Noelle agrees, "Well, Aurelia Black, I must go now, I have to go find my friends, we got separated. May we meet again, pretty girl!"

Aurelia smiles, blushing. They probably won't but she hopes they do because Noelle seems to be so lovely.

"Bye, Noelle, it was wonderful meeting you."

"Likewise," Noelle says, placing a polite kiss on her cheek.

"Wow," Aurelia mumbles breathlessly as she watches Noelle jog off to find her friends.

Once Noelle's out of hearing range, Mae clears her throat and asks: "What was that about?"

Aurelia turns to look at the blonde "What do you mean," she asks, playing dumb but Mae wasn't falling for it.

"That girl was flirting with you and you were flirting with her," Mae says, Aurelia wasn't sure but she swears she hears a hint of pride in Mae's voice.

Aurelia blushes and shrugs her shoulders "I mean, yeah, I guess."

"What do you mean, you guess," Mae says and nudges Aurelia's shoulder with a playful smile, "That girl was totally totally flirting with you, my darling moon, she definitely thinks you're cute!"

"You really think so, Mae?"

"I know so, wee moon."

Aurelia blushes harder and touches her hidden scars, wondering if it's Noelle would still find her cute with them showing.

"You act so surprised, Blue, when you have more admirers than Harry," Ron says teasingly from behind them, at this George and Ellie laugh.

"I most certainly do not!"

Ron starts to name people off the top of his head, starting with his siblings.

"Hey," Fred says, blushing and not appreciating being called out whereas Ginny looks proud of herself.

"Just accept it, Freddie, it's true. But can they really blame us, Blue is fine as fuck." Ginny says, smugly.

Fred gives Ginny a bewildered look, partly because of her ability to openly admit to having a crush on someone to their face but mostly her bold use of language when their dad is hardly a foot away.

Mae slings her arm around Aurelia's shoulder and pulls her close, kissing her forehead "Of course, she's fine! She's my baby!"

And Aurelia's heart seems to grow ten sizes in her chest because it sounds as though Mae truly considers Aurelia to be her daughter.  
  


* * *

* * *

" **PRIME SEATS**!" **THE** Ministry witch had said, "Straight to the top!" She had said.

"Holy mother of fucking tits," Aurelia had said because there's so many god damn fucking stairs.

Now, let's get this straight, Aurelia's not lazy, it should just be illegal to have this many stairs. Could they not have charmed the stairs to move like those Muggle Escalator things? Aurelia turns to the closest Weasley who happens to be, Percy. "Percy, please —"

"No," Percy says flatly not even daring to look at her and from beside him, Ellie laughs at the rejected look on Aurelia's face.

Aurelia turns to Bill with her puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, hop on," Bill sighs, giving in without much of a fight.

"Don't mind if I do," Aurelia says with a grin as she jumps on Bill's back, "Thanks, Willy Billy, I owe you one!"

"Please, never call me that again and we'll be even, Blue."

When they finally reach the Top Box, she jumps down from Bill's back and thanks him profusely. She goes to open her satchel to give him some money but he stops her.

"No," He laughs with a shake of his head "That'd be like me carrying Ginny all the way up here and expecting money from her."

They file into the first row of purple chairs. Aurelia sits in between Fred and George, Ellie sits on George's other side. The three boys start to talk about the impending Quidditch match.

"Dobby," Harry questions suddenly and Aurelia turns in her seat to look around the Top Box, curious to see if her dad's old House-Elf is there.

"Did sir just call me, Dobby," A high-pitched voice squeaks out, it's clearly not Dobby.

"Sorry, I just thought you were someone I knew," Harry apologises.

"But, I knows Dobby too, sir! My name is Winky, sir — and you, sir — You is surely Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, I am," Harry replies.

"But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir," Winky tells him.

"How is he? How's freedom suiting him," Harry asks.

"Ah, sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favour, sir, when you is setting him free," Winky squeaks mournfully.

Aurelia scoffs, Harry had done Dobby a huge favour freeing him from the Malfoys. He wasn't treated well there, the Malfoys never treated any of their House-Elves well.

"Why? What's wrong with him," Harry asks, looking taken back.

"Freedom is going to Dobby's head, sir," Winky says sadly, "Ideas above his station, sir. Can't get another position, sir."

"Why not?"

Winky lowers her voice by a half-octave and whispers, "He is wanting paying for his work, sir."

"Paying," Harry says blankly, "Well — why shouldn't he be paid?"

Winky looks quite horrified at the idea and closes her fingers slightly so that her face is half-hidden again.

"House-Elves is not paid, sir," She says in a muffled squeak, "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and next thing I hear you's up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin."

"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun," Harry says and Aurelia inwardly cringes as Winky becomes even more horrified.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter," says Winky firmly, "House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter" — she glances toward the edge of the box and gulps — "But my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir."

"Why's he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights," Harry asks, frowning.

"Master — master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy," Winky says as she tilts her head toward the empty space beside her. "Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good House-Elf."

Aurelia glances at it and for some reasons she's got a feeling that Winky is lying. Obviously, whoever her master is, they're a person of high status since they're seated in the top box and they wouldn't need to save a seat. All they would have to do is stand in front of the seat and the person occupying the seat would scatter.

"Aye, of course, you're a good House-Elf, it's your 'master' that's the dick," Aurelia says dryly and Winky turns her attention on Aurelia, giving her a look that's crossed between horrified and infuriated.

Winky stares at her, wide eyes narrowing as she stares at Aurelia "I knows you, miss, you is _that_ Half-Breed."

Aurelia's heart plummets into her stomach, every sound around her becomes fuzzy "What does that mean, how — I'm not a Half-Breed and I'm certainly not a specific one. I'm a Pureblood, thank you very much."

"It doesn't mean anything," Mae says in an uncharacteristically harsh voice from her spot behind her, "That's Crouch's elf, it's a little deranged, just ignore it."

"Oh okay," Aurelia mumbles and tries to ignore the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"So that's a House-Elf," Ron pipes in, "Weird things, aren't they?"

"Dobby was weirder," Harry says fervently and Aurelia nods in agreement.

"Way weirder," Ellie agrees in a dry tone.

Ron pulls out his Omnioculars and starts testing them, staring down into the crowd on the other side of the stadium. "Wild," He says, twiddling the replay knob on the side, "I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again . . . And again . . . And again . . ."

Hermione, meanwhile, skims eagerly through her velvet-covered, tasseled program "'A display from the team mascots will precede the match,'" she reads aloud.

"Oh that's always worth watching," Arthur says, "National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show."

The box fills gradually around them over the next half hour, Arthur keeps shaking hands with people who are obviously very important wizards. Percy jumps to his feet every so often that he looked as though he's trying to sit on a hedgehog, and he seems to forget himself for a moment when Oliver Wood joins them, Percy rushes to Oliver's side and gushes in a way that seems very un-Percy-like but he quickly composes himself. When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrives, Percy had bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered and Oliver laughs heartily at this but nevertheless helps Percy fix his glasses with his wand. Highly embarrassed, Percy thereafter remains in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry, whom Cornelius Fudge had greeted like an old friend. Oliver tries his best to give Percy a pep-talk, to which Aurelia and Ginny share a look, and gush about it silently.

"They're so cute," Aurelia mouths to Ginny.

"I know," Ginny mouths back.

"We're cuter," Ellie pipes up, his arm thrown around George's shoulder but not in away that looks like a cute, casual gesture but rather like he has the poor redhead in a chokehold. But, George doesn't look all that bothered by his boyfriend's tight hold, he just looks offended that his little sister and Aurelia think that Percy and Oliver are cuter than him and Ellie.

Fudge shakes Harry's hand in a fatherly fashion, asking how he is, and introduces him to the wizards on either side of him.

"Harry Potter, you know," Fudge tells the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and doesn't seem to understand a word of English. "Harry Potter . . . Oh come on now, you know who he is . . . The boy who survived You-Know-Who . . . You do know who he is —"

The Bulgarian wizard suddenly spots Harry's scar and starts gabbling loudly and excitedly, pointing at it.

"Knew we'd get there in the end," Fudge says wearily to Harry, "I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat. . . . Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places . . . Ah, and here's Lucius!"

"Oh, boy, here we go, someone's going to get punched." Aurelia mutters and Ron, who is sitting directly in front of her, laughs at this. Edging along the second row to three still-empty seats right behind Arthur, is Aurelia's parents and twin brother.

Draco spots her, and much to her surprise, he smiles wide at her "Lia, glad to —"

Lucius places a hand on Draco's shoulder and he falls silent " . . . Or our son, Draco."

"How do you do? How do you do," Fudge asks, smiling and bowing to Narcissa and Draco.

Aurelia glances at her family and her parents give her small smiles while Fudge looks around the top box for people to introduce, Draco smiles at her and waves, she waves back.

" . . . And let's see who else — you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay," Fudge asks her uncle.

Aurelia sighs and closes her eyes, someone's about to go through the top box window, Aurelia thinks, I'd put money on dad being the one to go. There's a very tense moment as Lucius stares down Arthur, both men are probably imagining throttling the other as they stare at each other.

"Good lord, Arthur. What did you have to sell to get seats in the top box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much," Lucius says softly.

Aurelia groans, internally rooting for Arthur to punch her father in the face. Cornelius Fudge babbles on, ignorant to what Lucius had just said "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest,"

"How — how nice," Arthur says with a very strained smile.

"How very," Aurelia mutters sarcastically, thinking about the time her parents refused to take her to St. Mungo's when she had been attacked by the werewolf back then.

The Malfoys take their seats, Draco gives Harry, Ron, and Hermione one last contemptuous look, then settles himself between his mother and father.

"Slimy gits," Ron mutters as he, Harry, and Hermione turn to face the field again. Although, they had been very kind to her tonight, Aurelia can agree with that.

The next moment, Bagman charges into the box, exclaiming: "Everyone ready? Minister — ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo," Fudge replies.

Bagman places his wand at his throat and Aurelia cringes when she realises that forgot to bring earplugs. A wrapper hits the back of her head, she turns around to see Draco mouthing: "Forgot something, dumbass? Catch."

"Thank you," She mouths back as she catches the earplugs that he throws at her, and she manages to put them in just as Bagman casts a spell on himself, to begin announcing the start of the match.

Bagman sounding as though he's using an extra loud megaphone, announces: "Ladies and gentlemen . . . Welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup! And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce . . . The Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

"I wonder what they've brought," Arthur wonders, leaning forward in his seat, "Aaah! Veela!"

Aurelia looks down at the field as a hundred or so Veela came out. "Holy shit," Aurelia mumbles in awe, she never really knew just how beautiful Veela are. They start to dance Aurelia quickly looks away knowing just what will happen if she continues to gawk at them. She'll do something stupid, that's what.

"And now, kindly put your wands in the air . . . For the Irish National Team Mascots," Ludo roars.

A green and gold comet flies over the stadium and maybe if the Irish had gone first, Aurelia might've found it more entertaining but she finds herself drawn back over to the Veela. Aurelia can feel Mae's burning gaze on the back of her neck and she knows she's going to be in an earful of teasing from her later but she doesn't look away until she hears Bagman scream "They're off!"

And then the game begins.

"Fingers in your ears," Arthur bellows as the Veelas start to dance again although Aurelia's already got earplugs in, she clamps her hands over her ears for good measure.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova — oh, I say!" Bagman roars.

The crowd gasps as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummet through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looks as though they had just jumped from aeroplanes without parachutes.

"They're going to crash," Hermione screams.

Only one does, Viktor Krum pulls up at the last second leaving Aidan Lynch to crash into the ground with a dull thud.

"Fool," Arthur moans, "Krum was feinting!"

"It's time-out," yells Bagman's voice, "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

"He'll be okay, he only got ploughed," Charlie says reassuringly to Ginny, who hangs over the side of the box, looking horror-struck. "Which is what Krum was after, of course. . . ."

It doesn't take long for Lynch to be healed and he's back up in the air in no time. The game resumes much more brutal than before. Then finally the most exciting moment of the night, Lynch spots the Snitch and dives for it.

"He's seen the Snitch," Harry shouts.

"They're going to crash," Hermione shrieks as Lynch dives towards the ground, Krum hot on his tail.

"They're not," Ron roars.

"Lynch is!" Aurelia and Harry shout and they're right, yet again, Lynch crashes into the ground and then he's immediately trampled by a herd of very angry Veela.

"Where's the Snitch," Charlie bellows.

"Krum's got it — it's all over," Harry shouts and indeed, Krum's got the Snitch but his team didn't win.

"IRELAND WINS," Bagman shouts excitedly, "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH -a BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

Fred and George jump out of their seat, screaming in victory. _They won their bet_ , Aurelia realises, _and that shady bitch better pay them back_! Elliot jumps up, hugging George and kissing him deeply. Fred picks up Aurelia and swings her around, gleefully shouting: "We won! We won! We won!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, Aurelia is a chaotic bisexual disaster, okay, thanks for coming to my ted talk. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 3,404


	9. Little Wolfie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pt, i: in which bellatrix lestrange's past comes back to haunt aurelia black in the worst way possible . . . 

****

**CHAPTER SEVEN** :

 **007 ||** Little Wolfie

* * *

" **DON'T TELL YOUR** mother you've been gambling," Arthur says to Fred and George, his tone on the verge of begging.

"Don't worry, dad," Fred says gleefully, "We've got big plans for this money, we don't want it confiscated."

Arthur opens his mouth to ask exactly what they've got planned but then promptly shut his mouth, deciding it's best he doesn't know. Aurelia laughs at the expression on Arthur's face; she's sitting on Fred's shoulder this time as they descend the purple-carpeted stairs.

"What's so funny, Blue," Fred asks.

"Oh, nothing," She giggles, shaking her head.

They soon get caught up in the crowds that are leaving the stadium as well. The loud screaming, singing, and chatter causes Aurelia to grow tense. Too loud and too crowded, she feels trapped and she feels like she's being watched. Aurelia's too afraid to turn around, afraid that she'll see something again.

 _It can't be here_ , Aurelia tells herself, _this isn't the woods behind Malfoy Manor_. Still, Aurelia can't bring herself to look over her shoulder. She's afraid she might see the wolf.

"I'm not going to drop you, Blue," Fred chuckles, "You can loosen your grip, you'll be fine. I've got you."

"Oh." Aurelia mumbles, relaxing her hold. Fred's right, _you're perfectly fine_ , Aurelia thinks to herself, pushing the feeling that somebody's watching her to the back of her mind. She should've turned around and then maybe, just maybe she might've seen that she's indeed being watched. Amidst the celebrating crowd stands a raven-haired woman that neither fits in or stands out, she's staring at Aurelia with a murderous expression.

"I'll get you just yet, Little Wolfie, I'll make you pay," She mutters, dark blue eyes full of rage.  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE WALK BACK** to their tent is filled with excited chatter about the game they had just watched. Ron and Ellie are, unsurprisingly, ranting and raving about Viktor Krum. Aurelia sits on Fred's shoulders, still feeling quite tensed even though she knows she's in a safe space. Fred and George share a look, before they begin to taunt Ron and Ellie.

"There's no one like Krum," Ron exclaims.

"Krum," Fred echoes in a funny voice.

"Dumb Krum," George says in the same funny voice.

Ellie and Ron glare at the twins.

"He's like a bird," Ron compliments fiercely, "The way he flies!"

The twins pretend to be birds as they circle around Ron. Aurelia and the others laugh at the scene but their laughter is drowned out by Fred's obnoxious bird calls.

"He's more than an athlete —"

"Is he a Brain then? Or a Princess? Or a Criminal? Ooh, or is he a Basketcase," Aurelia taunts.

Ron doesn't get it, so he glares at her, while Ellie rolls his eyes at her lame Muggle reference.

"He's an artist," Ron hisses at Aurelia.

Aurelia doubles over laughing, that's the most dramatic thing Aurelia's heard anyone say about someone else ever. But then again, this is coming from the girl who had once spent twenty minutes describing Neville's eyes to Neville, himself, when he had described them as a plain, boring, brown colour. Neville had complimented her eyes first and when she had complimented his in return but he dismissed her compliment, she, of course, wouldn't stand for it.

"I think you're in love, Ron," Ginny teases.

"He's totally twitterpated," Aurelia laughs in agreement.

"Sod off," Ron snaps, scowling at the two girls.

"Viktor, I love you! Viktor, I do! When we're apart my heart beats only for you!" Fred and George sing loudly as they wrap Ron and Ellie in the Ireland flag.

"Alright kids, settle down," Arthur says, handing out mugs hot cocoa.

Aurelia takes hers eagerly "Thank you, Mr. Weasley!"

"Arthur!"

"Thank you, Mr. Arthur!"

She grins at him and he sighs exasperated as he turns to Ginny and gives her a mug.

"After this, we're all going to bed, we've got a lot to do tomorrow," Arthur tells the lot of them, they all groan in agreement although none of them are the least bit tired.

Sipping on their hot cocoa, Ellie and Ron continue to fiercely defend Viktor Krum from the twins while the older Weasley boys have a heated debate with Harry, Hermione, Pollux, and Ginny. Mae sits slightly behind Aurelia, brushing her blue curls and occasionally butting into the discussion in front of them. But, for the most part she watches Aurelia worriedly. It's not until Ginny falls asleep at the table, spilling her hot cocoa everywhere does Arthur send them all to their beds. 

* * *

* * *

**AURELIA DOESN'T FALL** asleep. She's tired as hell but no matter how hard she tries to fall asleep she can't. She's never slept in a tent before but she hates it. Everything's got her on edge, she feels exposed. Every little snap of branch or a shadow passing the tent, sends her further into a panicked frenzy. Aurelia thinks about crawling into bed with Mae but she's a little too scared to move and she doesn't want to disturb her. After all, she should be over this by now, what happened to her is over and done with, it's been like forever since _it_ happened — _but what if it's the werewolf_?

 _No_ , Aurelia tells herself, _no, you're safe_ , she reassures herself as she tries to steady her breathing. It's not even a full moon. If it was, there's no way a werewolf would make it to these grounds with loads of Ministry workers around. _You're safe, you're safe, you're —_

A shrill scream echoes through the night.

_You're about to die, you're about to die, you're about to die._

Aurelia lifts her head up and glances around the tent, no one else stirs and maybe, just maybe that scream had been in her head. It had to of been, the others would've woken up, wouldn't they? She grips her sheets tightly, her blood running cold despite her efforts to calm her self. Something is wrong. Then comes another scream and Aurelia knows it's not in her head because Mae hears it to. The redhead sits up quickly and glances over at Aurelia, concern written all over her sharp features.

"Did you have a —"

A third scream.

Mae's green eyes widen in horror as she gets out of her bed and stumbles over to Hermione and Ginny. Something's wrong, oh, Merlin! Something's terribly wrong. The faint smell of something burning fills Aurelia's nose and she feels sick.

"Hermione, Ginerva wake —" Mae's cut off by another shrill scream that sounds as if it's right outside their tent. She shakes the girls awake as the screaming becomes more frequent "Get up and get your shoes on!"

Aurelia practically dives for her shoes as Mae goes to look outside the tent "Arthur! Art — oh, Merlin!"

Mae turns to the young girls and tells them "Hurry up!"

"What's going on," Ginny asks, confused and terrified.

"Death-Eaters," Mae replies, "I think they're going after Muggles . . . Hurry — OH!"

Arthur comes bursting into their tent "Wake up! Wake — oh! Come on then!" Arthur exclaims, grabbing Ginny and Hermione, who are pulling on their shoes.

"We need to get to the woods, it's not safe out here," He says urgently.

Mae grabs onto Aurelia and pulls her out of the tent, the others follow after them. It's mass chaos outside, tents are on fire, there are literally people up in the air, screaming bloody murder, as Death-Eaters on the ground controlled them. Aurelia's terrified as she huddles into her mum's side, that is until she hears a little boy wailing, she looks up to see a little blond boy no older than five in the air, struggling to get down. She's filled with rage as her eyes land on the Death-Eater controlling him. It's a woman, she can see the Death-Eater's wild raven curls and she can hear her shrill cackle as the little boy screams for help.

"Hey," Aurelia screams fiercely, "Hey! Let him —"

She tries to go after the Death-Eater but Mae pulls her back, exclaiming: "Aurelia are you mad?! You wouldn't stand a chance against a Death-Eater, let the professionals handle it!"

Her green eyes are wide and fearful as she stares up at Aurelia, holding the younger girl in place.

"Don't," Mae says firmly and Aurelia nods her head, glancing over the boys, Fred, George, Harry, and Ron are looking around, seemingly just as scared as she is.

"We're going to help the Ministry! You lot get to the woods, I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out," Arthur tells them as he, Percy, Charlie, and Bill rush forward to help the floating Muggles.

"C'mon!" Fred yells, grabbing ahold of Ginny's hand and dragging her toward the trees. The others follow suit, Mae holds tightly onto Aurelia's arm as they run after the twins.

They don't get very far as there's a high-pitched yelp in the distance and Mae suddenly halts, her eyes widening in fear as she yelps: "Ellie!"

Aurelia realises, horrified, the he hadn't been with the other boys. _Shit, shit, shit_! She thinks, leave it to Ellie to sleep through something like this. And then she realises that the yelp they heard must have been his.

"Aurelia, listen to me carefully, okay, get to those trees and find the others, and stay there until I come back with Ellie," Mae instructs Aurelia and when she nods, Mae smiles weakly and presses a kiss to Aurelia's forehead, saying: "Good girl."

Then she runs back towards the tents, Aurelia hesitates for a moment before turning on her heel and running for the trees. When she comes to stop, the twins and Ginny were long gone and so were Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Either she had went in completely different direction they had or they went further into the woods then she had.

"Harry! Hermione! Ron," She yells out, her lower lip trembling but she gets no response, "Fred, Ginny! George!"

Still, no response. She's scared and alone and on the verge of a panic attack.

 **SNAP**!

Aurelia yelps and jumps toward the sound of a snapping branch, there's a faint chuckle and she pulls her wand out of her jumper pocket, point.

"Who — who's there," Aurelia yells, "Fred, George, if that's you, this isn't funny!"

 **SNAP**!

A branch snaps behind her and she whirls around, pointing her wand in the general area in which the sound came from, she casts a very weak 'Lumos' but she can't make anything out of the little light she had produced.

 **SNAP**!

The sound is to her left this time, Aurelia chokes back a sob.

 **SNAP**!

It's on her right.

 **SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP**!

The sound of branches breaking is all around, circling her like a predator stalking its' prey. Aurelia can hardly breathe, she's so scared. She's half-expecting the werewolf to come through the trees. But, this is not the those woods, there is no full moon. No matter how much it looks like the woods surrounding Malfoy Manor, _it's not, it's not, it's not_.

"BOO! GUESS WHO," A woman's voice shrieks in her ear, laughing madly.

Aurelia barely has time to scream when the woman stuns her. The spell has enough force to send Aurelia flying into the nearest tree, hitting it with a harsh thud. "FUCK," Aurelia screams in pain, tears burning her eyes as she struggles to pull herself to her knees. She grips her wand in her had as she fights to catch her breath, when she had hit the tree, it had knocked all the air from her lungs.

Aurelia looks up at the woman who had attack her, it's Gwen fucking Goyle. Her family's worst enemy — excluding Rowle only because she is technically family. She struggles to get to her knees, her legs are shaking so badly. _Oh, fuck! Oh, I'm so dead_! Goyle smiles at Aurelia, a smile that makes her skin crawl. I'm going to die tonight, it seems whoever's watching over her, if that's a thing, is really upping the ante this year.

She can see the hatred in Goyle's eyes. As far back as she can remember, Goyle's always hated her, the few memories she has of the woman all basically include either a.) Gwen Goyle glaring at her as though she's the spawn of Satan b.) Gwen Goyle trying to maim, seriously injure, and possibly trying to kill her, and c.) both of those events combined.

"Remember me, Little Wolfie," Goyle taunts.

Aurelia swallows thickly, watching the Death-Eater stalk forward ever so slowly. She presses her aching back into the trunk of tree she had slammed into. Aurelia feels like a caged animal despite having her wand, her mind in blanking and she can't think of any good spells to use against her.

Goyle must think she's unarmed as she continues to taunt Aurelia in a high-pitched baby voice. "Bella's not here to save you now, Little Wolfie . . . No one's here to save you, not even Bella's Squib whore is here, you're all on your own. A whimpering, pathetic mutt with no one to come and rescue you."

Goyle's dark grey eyes are alight with excitement, her short wand pointed at Aurelia, shaking wildly as she rambles on. "I've waited years for this and now I'm finally going to have you screaming for mercy at my feet like the weak, filthy mutt you are. You'll be begging for the sweet release of death once I'm finished with you!"

"I'm a Malfoy," Aurelia says, her wand gripped tightly in her hand and she waits for the perfect moment to strike. She hopes she doesn't have too, perhaps Goyle has her mixed up with some other child — not likely given Aurelia's memories of Goyle but she's still hopeful, she doesn't want to die a brutal death. "I'm Asterope Aurelia Malfoy, I'm the daughter of Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, I've got pure blood! Please, I'm b — begging you, I'm just — I'm just a kid —"

Goyle laughs maniacally "You're not a kid, you're a flithy half-breed!"

The Death-Eater raises her wand quicker than a flash of lightning and squeals "Cru — CIO!"

Aurelia swears she's been set on fire, she screams out in agony as every part of her body feels like it's being pierced with sharp, hot knives. Her mind goes blank, the pain is too much, it's horrible. Being attacked by a werewolf was like a walk in the park compared to this, quite honestly she would prefer to be facing another werewolf than go through this. A blindingly painful jolt hits her in the centre of her back and then it feels like someone has taken a sharp blade and dragged it all the way down her spine, Aurelia finds her voice and she screams and screams

"M — M — Mae," She screams as she digs her nails into the damp Earth, "N — n — no! St — st — STOP! SOME — SOMEBODY HELP! PL — PLEASE!"

Goyle's practically beside herself with laughter as she lifts the curse.

"You're pathetic! And weak, just like your mother," Goyle barks, grinning like mad as she skips over to Aurelia. Her voice is raspy as she says that and Aurelia recalls hearing her earlier when talking to that German girl. It seems that Goyle's been watching her all night, maybe all day as well.

Goyle pulls Aurelia to her knees and spits in her face "You — you ruined her! You — you and that — that boy!"

"STUPEFY," Aurelia screams, putting all her strength in that spell.

It's doesn't look as strong as the one she was hit with but considering Aurelia's weak, in pain, and it's only her second time using that spell, it does a good enough job. It shocks Goyle enough to let go of her and stumble backwards a bit and that's all that Aurelia needs. Aurelia pulls herself to her feet, shakily, and takes off running but she doesn't get very far as Goyle's quick to recover. She stumbles past the tree line, her goal's to get close enough for a Ministry Worker to either see or hear her.

"Help! Help — help me," Aurelia screams.

Goyle's gaining on her and Aurelia tries to run faster but she's so weak, her legs are aching so badly.

"CRUCIO!"

The spell hits her square in the back and she falls to her feet screaming in agony. Aurelia curls into herself, wanting the pain to end, she wanted someone to come and stop Goyle.

"HEL — HELP M — ME!"

"Pathetic," Goyle laughs as she kicks Aurelia in the chest, "But, I do love it when the put up a fight. It makes it all the more entertaining!"

Aurelia, despite feeling like she's on the verge of death, tries to crawl away from her. Goyle cackles at the sight, enjoying every scream that leaves the bitch's mouth. She's not going to let Asterope get away this time. Neither that Squib Whore or Bellatrix are here to save their precious little star. Goyle's got her now.

"HELP!"

Goyle giggles "Do you actually think that someone's going to —"

"Expelliarmus," A familiar female voice calls out and disarms Goyle, "What are you doing, Gris, you're going to kill her!"

"Well, why can't I?!"

"You know why!"

Aurelia looks up, trying to catch her breath as she's released from the Torture Curse, and she's met with the sight of Xanthea Rowle. Aurelia frowns, of course she's still in contact with other death eaters. _Repentant, my ass_.

"No, honestly, Rowle, I don't."

"Our lord wants it alive for Bellabitch, it is her present when the time comes."

Aurelia starts to crawl away as quickly as she can while they bicker about these that don't make sense to Aurelia, her head is swimming and she needs help and honestly, it doesn't even sound like they're speaking English.

"He can find something else, although you and I both know that Lestrange deserves shit."

"You cannot kill it, the Dark Lord wants it, there's nothing else that will measure up to Lestrange's greatest desire so we can't kill it! He'd have our heads — and stop moving you, filthy brat!"

Aurelia's eyes widen in horror "Oh, bullocks."

"Bullocks, indeed — CRUCIO!"

Once again, Aurelia's entire body is placed under the worst pain she's ever felt as Xanthea Rowle points her wand at her and laughs. Goyle gives Rowle a dirty look as Aurelia screams bloody murder, after a minute she knocks the wand out of Rowle's hand.

" _We can't kill her_ ," Goyle says mockingly in a perfect imitation of Rowle's voice, "Hogswash, you just want to kill her by yourself!"

Before Rowle can say anything, they're interrupted by people calling out for Aurelia.

"Aurelia?!"

"Blue?!"

It's the Percy and his older brothers! Oh, thank Merlin! Someone heard her. "Per — per — Percy! Be — be careful, it's Goy — Goyle and Rowle, she —" She's cut off by Goyle who kicks her in the face. Aurelia howls in pain, her nose breaks with a sickeningly loud snap and blood goes gushing down her face. She hears four sets of footsteps approaching quickly.

"Aurelia?! Are you — she's over here! Bill! Charlie! I found her!"

"Perdy! Be Carebul — Goyle —"

"CRUCIO!"

"Shit, Bill! It's Goyle! Percy, be careful — Percy, no!"

Aurelia struggles to lift her head, where's Percy? Is he alright?

 _Merlin, it hurts_! Her face is wet with her tears and blood and she's in so much pain, so — Merlin, please — Merlin, make it stop — kill me! She wants to die; dying would be so much better than this pain — _oh, God! Please, just let it end_! Aurelia screams, her shaking hands tear at the wet grass as she tries to pull herself away from Goyle, begging: "Please, st — stop!"

She's ignored, she looks up as best as she can to see that Xanthea Rowle has vanished. She's can't tell for sure, her vision is far too blurry to make proper assessment, she rests her head onto the grass again as her head had gotten to heavy to lift.

"Leave, Weasley," Goyle hisses, glancing at the redheaded boy that's quickly approaching her, "Leave, I'd hate to spill blood as pure as yours even if you're a traitor, just leave —"

"STUPEFY," Percy bellows and Goyle gets thrown back a foot but she's quick to recover.

"Alarte Ascendare," Goyle calls out and Percy yelps as he's tossed in the air.

Goyle looks annoyed as she giggles "Guess I'll have to make this experiment quick, Little Wolfie — AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A bright flash of green light blinds Aurelia and she holds her breath, closing her eyes. _Oh, fuck, I'm dead! I'm dead and I'm still in pain! I can't believe God has the audacity to do this to me_!

There's a regretful expression that flickers across her face for the briefest of moments and then Goyle giggles shrilly, her giggle is cut short by a loud popping noise and then with that there's no noise from Goyle or Rowle. _They got away, fuck_ , Aurelia thinks.

Charlie comes bursting to the trees "Percy, are you — Oh, Merlin. Percy?

Percy lets out a breathless scream "Au — Aurelia! No! No!"

Charlie looks at Aurelia's stiff, bloody body "Is — is she dead?"

Percy doesn't answer, launching himself at Aurelia's body, hysterically sobbing through gasps for breath. When he collides with her body, she lets out an inaudible "Oof!" The smells of burnt grass invades her nostrils. _I'm alive_! She realises, praise _Jesus! Hallelujah_! Goyle's curse had missed her by barely an inch, the ground right by her nose had been singed upon impact. She had almost died.

Bill stumbles in Charlie "Where'd Goyle go, Charlie?! Where — Merlin, Aurelia . . . She's — She's dead?"

No! She tries moving but with Percy on top of her, she can barely move a muscle.

"I — I think so, Goyle ran off. She got away again," Charlie replies, sounding near tears.

"Percy g'it off," Aurelia hisses weakly, he does so without hesitation letting out a horrified scream. Aurelia tries to pull herself up but she's far too week, dark spots are dancing across her vision, she wants to go to sleep so, so badly.

"Merlin! She — She's alive," Charlie gasps.

"H — h — how," Percy splutters, looking both fearful and relieved.

"I'm a witch —" She says teasingly but weakly, "— wait." Wait, that's a Muggle reference. She's not a Muggle. "Oh," She mumbles, frowning.

"Percy, help her up, she's got to go to St. Mungo's! Who knows what Goyle's done to her," Charlie commands.

"I don't wanna go to St. Mungo's I wanna go to sleep," Aurelia whines, pouting.

"No," Charlie roars, "Don't go to sleep and, uh — DON'T GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT!"

"What light," Aurelia questions, confused. Almost as if on cue a bright green light brightens the night sky and Charlie gasps in horror, so does Percy. "Do you mean that light," Aurelia wonders innocently.

"N — no," Bill stammers, "No, Percy take her to St. Mungo's. Once she's been checked in come right back, Charlie and I are going to find the others."

Percy helps her stand and quickly realises she's far too weak to stand on her own so he picks her up.

"Oh, I — I see how tis, you — you'll only pick m'up if I — beat dead," Aurelia slurs almost incoherently then promptly passes out.  
  


* * *

* * *

**MAE IS SEARCHING** around wildly for her daughter, her left hand is burning and her body feels fuzzy. Something's wrong with Aurelia. She should've never left her alone. Ellie's tugging on her arm, apologising profusely for what he had gotten involved with, they made him, he was scared. But, his apologies fall on deaf ears as Mae's mind is elsewhere. Her daughter is in trouble, she is hurt. They wander quickly through the trees but there's no sight of her.

"Mum, I'm sorry," Ellie cries desperately, "I am s — so sorry! I —"

Mae turns to him "Don't you — don't. You didn't mean to, for now, let's put this behind us, we'll handle it tomorrow — we can handle it then. We — we need to find Aurelia."

Ellie swallows thickly "Yeah — yeah, before Goyle and Rowle do."

Mae freezes "She — she — that bitch is here? Both of them are here?" She knew it, Aurelia's hurt, she's in danger.

"Yes, I saw her — them — I think they're looking for, Blue."

"Oh, Merlin! Oh, bullocks! What have I done?! I —"

"Auntie Mae," Ginny's voice calls out from somewhere close by in the woods. Shortly after, Ginny comes running towards them, the twins following right behind her; Ellie rushes forward and hugs George.

"Where is Aurelia," Mae asks, looking at the three of them, Fred and Ginny share confused looks as Mae tearfully demands: "Where is she?! Where is my daughter?!"

"We thought, well, we thought she was with you," Fred replies nervously.

"Oh, Merlin," Mae sobs.

"She could be with Ron, Hermione, and Harry," Ginny supplies.

"Well, where are they?!"

"We . . . Don't exactly know."

"Well, that's loads of help," Mae snaps, hysterical.

"I'm sure Blue's fine," George says, looking away from Ellie.

At that moment, an older woman comes running through "A CHILD'S BEEN KILLED! A CHILD'S BEEN KILLED!"

"That's not her, Mum," Ellie tells Mae quickly, "She doesn't mean —"

Mae wails loudly, her knees feel weak. She's dead, Aurelia's dead. Oh, she can feel it. Her daughter is dead, the one she vowed to protect is dead!

Bill comes running after the woman "Ma'am it — Aunt Mae! Oh, you're all pretty well here, thank —"

"Where's my daughter," Mae shrieks, lunging at Bill.

He frowns "Percy's —"

"Is she dead?! Has she really been killed?!"

"No, well, not exactly."

"What the bloody hell do you mean 'not exactly' what's happened," Mae cries, "Where is she, William?!"

"She was hit with the Killing Curse," Bill says and everyone goes still.

Mae's blood runs cold, her body feels even fuzzier and her left hand throbs.

"But, she's alive," He says after a moment's pause, looking quite unsure of himself and the events that had just unfolded.

"WHAT?!"

"HOW?!"

"It can't be —"

"HARRY SUR —"

"SHUT UP," Mae screams over the kids' questions.

They do, looking both confused and mortified and so Bill continues "Goyle had ahold of her and was torturing her, Percy heard her screams and he ran off to go find Aurelia and Charlie and I followed him. Percy wasn't thinking and he run straight into a losing battle but Goyle had no interest in him and tossed him aside to kill Aurelia. Goyle hit her with the Killing Curse and Aurelia was still for a few moments but then she woke up . . . Percy's taken her to St. Mungo's —"

"I —"

"We have to find the others first, Aunt Mae, besides it's highly unlikely that they'll let you see her at the moment," Bill tells her, "My little brother and his friends are still out there and I need to find them, so can you please take them back to our tent, I've been told that it's safe to go back now."

Mae nods numbly.

"Thank you, she's in good hands, Aunt Mae. As soon as you get them back to the tent, you can go. I can find the others on my own."

She nods again. Dread fills Mae's stomach, she had promised her that she would protect Aurelia and she had failed. She had worked so hard to keep Aurelia alive and safe. Their fourteen years of hard work had gone to hell in less than an hour. Her daughter could be dying for all she knows and it's all her fault. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aurelia really goes through it during this act and it's going to be just as bad in the second act. In fact she doesn't get a break until like act three/half-blood prince but I don't really think I can call that a break because bad things still happen but she's like happier when the bad things aren't happening so there's that. Honestly Aurelia probably one of my most tortured OCs, the next being Nell but even Nell gets to be happy and healthy through out her story, Aurelia gets PAIN and honestly I thrive from it lol. Aurelia is like the female version of Harry Potter, trouble always finds her. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> ALSO,,, I'm thinking of posting a Steve Harrington fic soon, would any of you be interested in reading that if I did???
> 
> word count: 4,743


	10. Phantom of St. Mungo's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pt, ii: in which bellatrix lestrange's past comes back to haunt aurelia black in the worst way possible . . . 

****

**CHAPTER EIGHT** :

 **008 ||** Phantom Of St. Mungo's

* * *

" **YOU DID WHAT** , Goyle?" Xanthea Rowle snarls, grabbing Goyle by the collar of her cloak.

Both Xanthea Rowle and Gwen Goyle had escaped the security at the World Cup and they had managed to get Barty Crouch Jr away from his controlling father. Now, they've taken up residence in the abandoned Lestrange manor for the time being, soon they would leave and complete the tasks their Dark Lord had assigned them.

"I hit her with the Killing Curse," Goyle says weakly, not wanting to face Rowle's wrath. Out of the two of them, Rowle was the one with the worst temper and she wasn't against spilling pure blood if it meant relieving stress.

"You fucking what," Rowle snarls, "What the fuck —"

"I wasn't thinking —"

"Clearly, you weren't, Goyle! You could have lost the Dark Lord his pawn!"

"I never —"

"You seem to care more about getting revenge against Bellatrix than for the Dark Lord's cause —"

"How dare you —"

"No, how dare you, I told you that the filthy brat wasn't to be killed," Rowle snarls, "You truly are a reckless Gryffindor, Goyle."

"I still think that he should use something else for her."

"That is not your decision to make, Goyle! and you almost risked losing it tonight, she's already been damaged enough —"

"And who's fault is that Miss-I-Almost-Used-The-Dark-Lord's-Gift-For-Bait-For-The-Longbottoms?!"

"At least I'm not the one who tried to sell it out to Greyback twice," Rowle yells, letting out an animalistic snarl, trying to lunge at Goyle but Barty Crouch Jr. steps between the two women.

"Ladies, ladies," He says, "You both are blinded by your hatred for Bellatrix and will do anything to get revenge even if that means going against our master's orders."

"I wasn't the one who hit the bastard with a Killing Curse," Rowle defends, glaring at the younger man.

"No, but you did taunt her and torture her," Crouch Jr. points out.

"Well, she deserved a little punishment, she's turning into a Blood-Traitor thanks to Lestrange's Squib whore."

"You don't know that, Bella's smart, she could be having the Squib teach it to infiltrate Dumbledore's good side — we all know Dumbledore is a sucker for monsters. It could be an act," Crouch Jr. says calmly, "Remember, keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Rowle crosses her arms over her chest and glares at Crouch Jr. and Goyle rolls her eyes but Crouch Jr. stands his ground and he continues "Instead of torturing and almost killing her, you two could've kidnapped her. You could've brought her to our master and he could've used her, she could have helped with a mission with the right amount of persausion. So, good job on letting your blood-thirst cloud your poor judgement again, girls."

Goyle looks at Crouch Jr. then looks to Rowle, who grits her teeth because she knows that he has a point. They could've taken her, they could've brainwashed her easily but instead they decided to toy around with her. They could've done the Dark Lord a great favour by bringing him a new pawn. He would've rewarded them so well, Rowle could've been better than Bellatrix but she had to go and fall into Goyle's way. She just had to relent and have some fun with Lestrange's little brat like Goyle has wanted to do for years now, if Rowle had just stayed in control then they would have a better plan then the one they faced at hand.

Rowle rounds on Goyle, shouting: "This is all your fault!"

Goyle swallows thickly, not wanting to face Xanthea Rowle's wrath again so she rounds on Crouch Jr. and asks: "Where's Yaxley?"

Crouch Jr. rolls his eyes at the two women, completely convinced that they share one braincell between the two of them. But, he answers Goyle's question nevertheless "Last I heard, she was completing her part of the plan. And she was doing it without fucking it up!"  
  


* * *

  
  


**SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP**  
written by rita skeeter | pg. 2 continued . . .

**— Among the chaos, wanted Death-Eater, Gwen Goyle (pictured above) was spotted. How she managed to slip past the security is unknown, she was only only spotted after the initial attack on the Muggles. Unlike her other fellow Death-Eaters, Goyle was not involved with the Muggle attacks, instead she was found torturing, Asterope Malfoy, who now resides at St. Mungo's with no word on her current condition.**

**Asterope Malfoy, a fourteen-year-old Hogwarts student, attending the Quidditch World Cup was tortured for half-hour by Gwen Goyle before Ministry Workers were able to intervene. She was unconscious when she was brought to St. Mungo's; an eye-witness to the attack said they saw Goyle hit Malfoy with the Killing Curse. As strange as that sounds could it be possible that someone else has survived the Killing Curse or was it just another rumour birthed from the terror at the Quidditch World Cup? —**

* * *

* * *

**MAE SNORTS** , **TOSSING** the Daily Prophet onto the bedside table. Rita Skeeter is still so full of it, _what a bitch_! While waiting for Aurelia to wake, Mae keeps her eyes out for that little beetle. No doubt Rita's desperate to hear about what really happened to Aurelia. Even back during what would have been Mae's hogwarts years, Rita Skeeter had always been a gossip-loving little shit. Skeeter would've been a year under Mae, if Mae hadn't been a Squib, and Skeeter was dorm mates with Bellatrix. Mae had only met Skeeter a couple of times and none of them were pleasant encounters.

Of course, there isn't much Mae could do about Skeeter's nosy behaviour considering Skeeter knew Bella's biggest secret and vice versa. Bella happens to be an unregistered Animagus like Skeeter and Skeeter knows that because she had been the one to challenge Bella to be the one to do it. In their seventh year, Skeeter and Bella's had a very 'anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better' type of relationship and Skeeter had challenged Bella that she couldn't become an Animagus before her. Luckily no complications happened but more unfortunately, as Bella always says, Skeeter had won. And now the two are bound by secrecy, they have a line they can never cross.

It's been almost three days since the attack, Aurelia had slept through them mostly, waking up for a few minutes here and there, sometimes saying some nonesense, sometimes she just stared at the ceiling. They put her in the Janus Thickey Ward which is supposed to be a permanent ward but Mae doubts, she has a good feeling, that Aurelia will not be there permanently. The Healers had insisted, though, since they couldn't tell what state Aurelia was in.

Neville Longbottom had unsurprisingly visited four times, twice yesterday; he had cried every time and held her hand almost the whole time. Aurelia had woken up once when he had been there. She spoken during the two minutes she had been awake, telling Neville and Mae quotes: "Your teeth make you look like a bunny, a soft bunny . . . You'd be such a fluffy bunny . . . Don't worry you're still pretty to me, Plant Boy," then Aurelia had tried to smile at him but it looked more like a grimace, seconds later she fell asleep. Luckily for her, he didn't take offense to the comment, it had made him more worried than anything.

Mae reaches for her cup of tea only to realise that it's empty, she frowns then gently pats Aurelia's knee "I'm gonna go grab another cup o' tea. I'll be right back, wee moon."

Aurelia lets out a quiet groan but doesn't stir nor open her eyes. Mae glances around the Janus Thickey Ward to make sure, Alice Longbottom is nowhere in sight before she leaves. Shortly after Aurelia had arrived in the ward, Alice had taken up the habit of wandering over to her bedside and just staring at her until a Healer comes to usher her away. Mae can't seem to see her, assuming Alice must be preoccupied with a puzzle, she leaves the ward.

From across the ward, Alice Longbottom sits in front of a small table watching Aurelia intently instead of working on her puzzle. Now that the redheaded woman was gone — _Maeve or May-Ella_? Alice doesn't recall what her name really is but she knows that woman. _How_? She's not exactly sure about that. But she knows her. She does know her. She's sure of it. And Alice knows the girl lying in the bed, she looks a little different than Alice can recall but Alice knows her, she think she's friends with her. Or was. She's not sure but she feels both and happy and wary to see her. _Bella_? _Or was it Andy_? She can't exactly recall her name either but Alice knows this girl for certain and she wants to know how. Alice recalls that the girl either did something bad or something bad happened to her, Alice can't recall what exactly the 'bad thing' was but she knows that something happened. She can't remember but she wants to, she wants to know how and why, she wants to know what the 'why' is. Alice wants to know who this girl is.

_Bella or Andy_ , whoever the person is, she wants to know. Alice recalls that they're friends or maybe they once were but that's all she can recall properly. There's something else but she can't remember what it is, it's all far too blurry. Alice tries very hard to remember but it always comes back to friends and pain. She stumbles over to the girl's bed and sit down on the edge, Alice stares intently at the girl, waiting impatiently for her to wake up.

_Why is she always sleeping? — I know her. I know her. I know her. — How? Why can't I remember? — I know her. I know her — Friend? Maybe? Yes? Enemy? Can't remember. Can't_ — Alice is frustrated, why can't she remember? She's trying so hard. How can she not remember. She should remember more than pretty laughter and then scary laughter. Her memory should be better than this, Alice's pretty sure she is an Auror or was an Auror. She can't exactly remember that either. _It's so blurry_. She wants this girl to wake up because if anyone has answers, it's got to be her. _Wake up. Wake up_.

Someone touches her shoulder and she grows tense, if it's someone who wants her to leave this girl alone again she'll scream. She doesn't want to leave because she might forget, she forgets a lot but she can never remember what exactly she's forgotten, Alice just has that feeling that she's forgetting something important. It's frustrating.

"Mum."

Alice relaxes, it's that rounded-face boy that always seems to be around. He always says his name's Neville, like the name she gave her son — her baby boy. _Neville's just a little baby_. This Neville had to be about fifteen, he's nice and she likes him better than the others around her. She hopes her son grows up to be nice like him. _My son. My sweet boy. Wait — where is my son? Where did he —_

"Mum, why don't we go sit on your bed," Neville suggests.

She looks at Neville. _No. No. No_. She doesn't want to go to her bed, she wants answers. Alice turns back to Aurelia. _I know her. I know her. I know her_. She leans closer. _Wake up. Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP_!

"Mum?"

_WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP_! Alice turns back to Neville. _WAKE HER UP_! She screams frustrated but he doesn't react, doesn't even flinch; he just stares at her with a concerned expression. _WAKE HER UP! WAKE HER UP_!

Aurelia wakes with a start, someone's screaming. Why are they screaming? Her eyes land on Alice Longbottom and she realises she's in St. Mungo's and Neville Longbottom's mum is staring right at her. _Oh, fuck_. Her head feels blurry and she can't remember why she's in here, she stares at Alice with a confused expression, she doesn't remember Mae saying anything about visiting the Longbottoms this week or any time soon, Aurelia _definitely_ would've remember that. If Mae had told her that, Aurelia would've prepared a bouquet of sunflowers for Alice.

" _I know you_ ," A female voice says, soft but also annoyed.

Aurelia looks around the ward, her eyes glancing over Neville, not even realising he's even there. No one else could have said that to her, she realises, her eyes landing back on Alice. _Oh, double fuck_.

Alice leans closer, staring at her intensely _I KNOW YOU_!

Aurelia flinches, she can hear what Alice is thinking. It's more shocking that Alice's thoughts are coherent than the fact Aurelia can hear them. After all, Aurelia's a natural-born Legilimens, Aunt Andy has been training her ever since little five-year-old Aurelia first told Mae that she could sometimes hear cousin's thoughts ( spoiler alert: they were disturbing! ). The gift came from her mum's side of the family, her mum being an incredibly talented Occlumens as well as an Legilimens. Grandma Druella and Grandpa Cygnus had drilled the skills in her mum and aunt's mind from a young age like their parents did to them and so on an so forth. Legilimency and Occlumency had been a very well taught and important skill to the Black family for multiple generations now.

"You — you can talk," Aurelia whispers, not daring to take her eyes off Alice, afraid that she'll lose the connection, "You're alright?"

It's then that Neville realises she's awake, he sighs relieved and bit surprised "You're awake," and then he pulls her into a tight hug, that's when Aurelia realises he's here. Even as he hugs her, she doesn't move her eyes away from Alice.

_WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME_! Alice yells, growing even more frustrated, there's no way the girl can't hear her, she's screaming at her.

"Get a heal — Healer please," Aurelia says desperately and Neville gives her a look of concern but nods his head and turns on his heel to go fetch a Healer.

"Can . . . Can you understand me," Aurelia asks, she tries to enter Alice's mind and push her thoughts into Alice's mind but she's surprised to find that Alice is blocking her. Or perhaps, there isn't anything there for Aurelia to see, it's probably the latter after everything the Longbottoms went through. It's a miracle that she even has coherent thoughts.

Alice's eyebrows scrunch together ever so slightly and if Aurelia hadn't been staring at her so intently she would've missed it. _Of course, I can understand you! Do you think I'm dumb or something_? The offended tone of her voice doesn't match the practically blank look on her face. Who are you? You're Bella, right? Or is it Andy? You're my . . . Friend, right? Or you were once . . . But — but, then you did something bad . . . Or something bad happened to you — who are you?

"I — I'm neither of those people, I'm their niece . . . I'm Asterope. . . Do you —" Aurelia says, "Do you know —"

Alice tilts her head _No . . . No . . . You can't be Asterope, she's just a little baby, wait if you know Asterope then that means, you know my son. Do you know where he is, I think this place is St. Mungo's, he must be sick. Can you telling me who's checking him over. Oh, yes, his name is Neville, like that boy over there —_

Aurelia's eyes widen in surprise and she sit up in bed, a bolt of pain runs up her spine but she ignores it. Her excitement over Alice mentioning Neville completely overshadows the fact that Alice, a Blood-Traitor, knew her.

"You remember your son? That — ouch, fuck! — that boy, that's your son!"

Alice leans back, her eyes widening slightly but still, it looks rather blank and doesn't match the tone of her thoughts _Don't be ridiculous, my son is just a wee thing, only a year old_!

"No . . . No . . . He's not one anymore, Alice . . . It's not nineteen eighty-one anymore."

_What do you mean it's not nineteen bloody eighty-one?! Of course, it's nineteen eighty-one, what year do you think it is, kid?!_

"Nineteen ninety-four," Aurelia says slowly, does Alice actually think it's nineteen eighty-one, almost as if she's trapped in time?

Alice laughs but her mouth doesn't move. Her light laughter fills Aurelia's brain as she says: you're crazy, kid!

"It's nineteen-ninety-four, Neville's fourteen now, he's not a baby anymore, Alice, you're the one who's in St. Mungo's."

_No . . . No . . . That can't be . . . It can't be . . ._

"Think about it . . . He calls you mum," Aurelia says softly.

Alice thinks hard, _has he_? She's never really paid attention to what Neville calls her when he's around. Neville can't be fourteen, she'd remember him growing up, _thank you very much, kid_! She's only been in this place for a day maybe even less . . . Hasn't she, she doesn't even know why she's here? Alice thinks very hard but everything's so blurry, _why is it so blurry_?

An image of baby Neville flashes in Aurelia's mind, he's smiling and then he's replaced by Frank, then her aunt but she can't tell which one because the image is gone too fast and replaced by her aunt again but she's sneering this time and then blood, so much blood, Frank's limp body, then Goyle laughing, and then nothing.

It's then that Aurelia remembers why she's in St. Mungo's as the events of the Quidditch World Cup start filling her mind, tears start to blur her vision but she pushes past it. This is much more important, Alice Longbottom and her ability to think is way more important, it's a medical miracle even by Wizarding standards.

Alice goes quiet, her face getting paler. From the corner of her eye, Aurelia sees Neville returning with a young, female healer. Aurelia chews on her lower lip in a nervous manner, reaching out a shaky hand but decides against touching her at the last moment "Alice . . . Are you —"

Much to Neville's surprise, his mum's head snapped up.

_I KNOW YOU! I KNOW YOU! I KNOW YOU_!

Aurelia flinches at the woman's loud thoughts "No . . . You don't, my name is Asterope, I —" An image Aunt Bellatrix or maybe Aunt Andy flashes in Aurelia's mind but it's gone before she can distinguish which one.

_You're Bella . . . Yes, or Andy? I can never seem to remember what one is your name, it's either one of the two —_

The Healer Neville had fetched places her hands on Alice's shoulder and gently nudges her "Come along, Alice, I believe you have a puzzle to finish."

_NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO_! Alice is shouting angrily, unaware that it's all in her head.

"It's fine," Aurelia says quickly, "She's not harming anyone, she can stay here until she wants to go back to — to that puzzle."

The Healer hesitates but eventually lets Alice be and then turns her attention to Aurelia "Very well, very well. How are you today, Miss. Malfoy, are you in any pain? Any headaches, nausea?"

Aurelia shakes her head "No, not really . . . But, I am rather hungry."

"Of course, of course! I'll go and fetch you a plate of food right now," The Healer says with a nod, hurrying out of the ward.

Alice's thoughts are growing louder and more frustrated, they were getting harder to ignore. Aurelia tenses, glancing at Neville who's staring at her with an emotional expression. She wants to tell him, she should tell him but she's afraid that he won't believe her and get upset at her or even angry at her for even saying such a thing; Aurelia doesn't want to ruin their friendship.

Neville kneels down by her side, he looks like he's about to cry "Ari —"

She swallows thickly "Neville, can I — can I tell you something? And can you promise not to get mad at me?"

Neville nods, he's a bit confused as to what she could possibly want to tell him but relieved that she's no longer saying weird things. Neville's been beside himself with worry since he had heard what had happened to Aurelia. He had been so afraid that she'd end up like his parents, he had grown up hearing how ruthless Gwen Goyle was alongside the Lestranges and Crouch Jr. from his grandmother and godmother. Hearing that Aurelia had been attacked, possibly killed, by Goyle had been the most terrifying thing Neville had ever been through. Aurelia opens her mouth to speak but she's cut off by his mum who let's out a frustrated, raspy groan. His eyes widen in surprise, his mum's never made a sound this loud before.

Aurelia clamps her shaking hands over her ears, mumbling: "Please stop screaming, I can hear you just fine."

"Ari, no one's screaming."

"Yes — I, uh —" Aurelia stammers, glancing at his mum.

Neville glances at his mum as well, to his surprise she actually looks annoyed. His mum usually has a blank look on her face, occasionally paired with an absentminded smile. Alice's eyebrows twitch upward as she stares intently at Aurelia.

"Yes, I can hear you! I am most certainly not deaf," Aurelia mutters.

Neville is so confused but he's also excited in a weird way. He can't exactly explain why he's excited but he feels all tingly as he looks between Aurelia and his mum, something's going on. Something good, something big. "Who — who are you talking to, Ari," Neville asks but he thinks he knows the answer or at least he hopes it'll be her answer.

Once again, Aurelia swallows thickly and says: "Please don't be mad at me."

"No, never," He assures her.

"I — I know it sounds weird, hell, believe me it feels weird but I can hear her — your mum's thoughts. I'm sort an Legilimens, my mother is too and her gift was passed down to me, somewhat, I've got a natural talent for it and I've been studying it for years. Actually, my family's been studying — not — not the point, sorry . . . I've always been able to hear people's thoughts for a long time now and, well, I — I can hear your mum's thoughts," Aurelia rambles nervously.

"You can," Neville asks giddily. He believes her wholeheartedly, Aurelia, from what he knows about her, doesn't seem like the person to make something like that up and with his mum's strange behaviour, it makes sense, "What's she thinking," Neville asks, his hazel eyes wide with excitement.

"Well, right now she's thinking that I'm a bit daft — hey, am not!"

Neville looks at his mum to notice the corner of her lip twitch as though she's holding back a smirk.

"I'm not daft, Alice, thank you very much! I just got a lot on my mind at the moment, for example: your extremely loud thoughts!"

"Gran used to bring in lots of Legilimens to see if they could find anything in my parents' heads but none of them ever found anything more than a few images that usually went away within seconds and never returned. Do — do you think this means that they — they're coming around — coming back to us?"

Aurelia frowns, shrugging "I — I don't know, Nev — Neville, I don't know what's going on, I —" She's scared, she's confused, and she's feeling extremely guilty. Not to mention, she's got a bloody migraine. "I'm not sure how to explain it but deep inside your mum's mind her memories are there, some of them at least but they're trapped."

"Trapped?"

"They're . . . Being withheld possibly, the damage done to her by the curse probably keeps her from remembering. I — I think I might have triggered some of her memories. She thought I was my . . . I was my aunt and then she thought it was nineteen eighty-one —"

"Why would she think that?"

Aurelia shrugs and Neville bites his lip, his giddiness turning into nervousness as he mulls a question over in his head. Should he ask it? Does he really want to know the answer? "What about me," He blurts out, eyes glossy and face pale.

"Th — that . . . Well, uh, she remembers she has a son named Neville but she . . . Well, she doesn't think that you're her Neville, she still thinks you're a baby, she thinks it's nineteen eighty-one, she's got no recollection of what happened to them."

_Them_? Alice echoes.

Aurelia turns to Alice "Frank, they got him too. I'm — I — I'm so sorry, Alice, please forgive me," Aurelia pleads, tears threatening to spill.

_Frank . . . Frank . . . He's my husband . . . My love, my Frank._

"Yes, Alice, he is. He's here too, at the back somewhere probably drawing, Mrs. Longbottom —"

_He likes to draw, my Frank, he draws all the time._

"Yes, yes. Neville tells me that he likes to draw, Neville . . . Your son," Aurelia says softly.

Neville looks between the two of them with teary eyes, his mum remembers him, somewhat, at least. And that's more than enough for him. "Mum," Neville whispers, voice cracking, "Mum, it's me . . . It's Neville."

_No_ , Alice whimpers, _no, you — you can't be! My Neville is only a baby, just a — just a wee little thing that can hardly walk! I would — no, not my Neville, wrong, I would remember my Neville growing up_!

Alice turns to look away from the two teens when a shimmer of gold catches her eye. It's the necklace that hangs around Aurelia's neck, a sun-shaped locket. Her eyes widen and memories that she can hardly remember come at her fast, so fast and so blurry. It gives Alice a headache, she wants it to stop, her mouth opens up in a silent scream. _Asterope. Daughter. Weapon. Voldemort. Greyback. Help. No. Save her. Save her. Why. Why. Anything for her. For them. Help. Black. No. Not Neville. No. No._

Aurelia's face crumbles as a wave of Alice's emotions hit her like a tidal wave, sadness and confusion, it's all too much for Aurelia. She's never felt feelings from thoughts before, Aunt Andy and her mum had described it as being over overwhelming and they hadn't been kidding. She sobs, pulling her knees to her chest just to get away from Alice, she wants Alice to go away and then suddenly, she feels and hears nothing more from Alice, who's now staring at the floor.

"Ari, what — what's wrong? Are you in pain? Do you want me to get another healer," Neville questions, concerned for her — why is she crying? Could it be something his mum thought?

Aurelia takes a deep breath,trying to remember what her mum told her about keeping others' thoughts out of her head, she doesn't want to hear Alice's thoughts for a long time. Neville grabs her hand, brushing his thumb gently over the top of her palm "Ari?"

She blinks, covering her necklace with her other hand as for some reason it had triggered a very surprising reaction from Alice. A reaction she hopes to never be a witness to again. Before she can say anything, Mae returns with a cup of steaming tea, her green eyes widen when she sees that Aurelia's awake "Oh, wee moon, thank goodness you're awake! I was starting to get nervous there!"

She spots Alice sitting on Aurelia's bedside and bites back an exasperated sigh but Augusta, arriving just behind her, sighs loud enough for the both of them "Alice, dear, stay way from —" Augusta starts to say but she stops upon seeing the dirty look Mae is giving her, she pauses for a moment then clears her throat.

"Alice, dear, don't you have a puzzle that needs completing," Augusta questions Alice in a soft voice, grabbing her daughter-in-law's elbow in an attempt to lead her away. This time Alice complies, her expression is completely blank and her mind is quiet. Aurelia's not sure if it's because she's hopefully lost connection with the woman or if it's due to the fact there's simply nothing on the woman's mind.

"My darling, are you alright? You're crying, are you in pain," Mae questions worriedly, gently pushing Neville out of the way so that she could sit next to Aurelia.

Aurelia glances at Neville, they stare at each other and it seems like Neville's trying to communicate something to her but she doesn't hear anything, she's keeping her mind blank so that she doesn't hear anyone's thoughts. Just like Aunt Andy told her to do all those years ago.

"I — I'm confused, what hap — happened to me? Where — is Percy alright? Goyle, she — I —" Aurelia stammers tearfully, "Everything is blurry, and Rowle was there — she — Ellie! Where's Ellie, I remember, he — he wasn't with us, what happened to him?!"

Mae brushes Aurelia's damp curls from her bruised, pale face. "Goyle and Rowle attacked you, they — oh, Merlin! My sweet darling, I'm s — so sorry, I — I should've never left you own your own, pl — please forgive me!"

Aurelia frowns, if it's anyone's fault it's her own. For someone who spends most of the school year either practicing spells or creating her own, it had been pretty pathetic of her to not be able to think of at least three good spells to protect herself. She had only thought of the Stunning Spell because that's the only one she can sort of do, she's pathetic. Aurelia shakes her head quickly "No, mum, er, Mae, it's not your fault."

Mae strokes her cheek lovingly "I could've lost you forever, I thought you were dead."

"I'm a bad witch, you can't kill me," Aurelia laughs weakly.

"You . . . You were hit by the Killing Curse . . ." Mae trails off, although Mae knows that as long as Aurelia saw it coming than it wouldn't have been much of a threat, at least that's what Bella said. But, Bella could be wrong . . .

Aurelia blinks, she remembers that vividly the bright green light that had just missed her, "No . . . Goyle missed me by an inch, I thought I was dead for — for a moment." she whispers, green eyes wide with fear.

"Oh," Mae breathes, looking relieved beyond belief as a smile dances across her red-tainted lips.

Aurelia studies her, she doesn't look too good, her thick blonde curls are dishevelled, her eyeliner smudged, and bright red lipstick smeared, she wonders if Mae has gotten a wink of sleep since she was attacked — _holy titty fuck! My scars_. She covers the right side of her face but she realises that if they had been showing Neville would've said something by now like "Oh, those are ugly!" or "Bloody hell, I did't realise I'm friends with the Phantom of the fucking Opera!".

Okay, Neville wouldn't say that, he's never read the Phantom of the Opera or listened to the musical — the superior version — so he wouldn't compare her to that. The former is more along the lines of something he would, so it's safe to say that her scars are hidden.

Speaking of Neville it appears that he had left, Aurelia looks around the ward to see that Neville has wandered off to visit with his mum, he's helping her with her puzzle and across the ward, Neville's grandmother is visiting Frank Longbottom, who is regarding Augusta Longbottom with a very tense expression. Aurelia wonders if Frank is in the same state as Alice. This thought both saddens and excites her, it excites her because there's hope that they can be saved but it makes her sad to think that they were even reduced to such a state. Especially by someone in her own family.

"Well, where's Ellie? What happened, where —"

"He's alright and so is Percy, he's at the Burrow with everyone else. Ellie had wandered off because he couldn't sleep and when things started goin' up in flames, well . . . His father's past caught up to him for a moment, but he wasn't hurt. Everyone's fine, we're all just worried about you."

"I love you . . . Mum," Aurelia says hesitantly, not hesitating to say that she loves Mae but hesitating to call her mum.

Mae gives her watery smile and leans over to kiss Aurelia's forehead "I love, my darling Donum Vitae, so so much."

* * *

* * *

**AFTER SOME TESTS** the Healers decide to keep Aurelia there for a few more days, much to her dismay, just to make sure she didn't suffer from any permanent damage. Neville visits both those days, much to his grandmother's dismay, bringing sunflower crowns each time for Aurelia to wear.

It was the early hours of the morning, Aurelia would be going home later that day. Aurelia hadn't slept much at all, she kept having nightmares about not only what happened at the Quidditch World Cup but about the werewolf attack as well, and since she managed not to wake up screaming from them, a huge feat on her part, none of the Healers noticed her distressed state.

Aurelia sits up in her bed, watching the quiet ward shuffle around her. There's only half the Healers as there usually is, it's still technically nighttime and by the looks of it, nighttime obviously goes smoothly. Aurelia glances at the window, the moon is low in the sky and soon the sun will be taking it's place, the moon is nearly full, her head throbs and her stomach churns; as it always has since she had been attacked by the werewolf. The full moon is only a day or so away, Aurelia knows that it's nothing compared to what Remus or other werewolves have to go through but it still hurts like a bitch — it's like her period. But, at least she doesn't turn into a blood-thirsty monster once a month.

Aurelia gets up, swinging her legs over the edge of the hospital bed. They're still shaking although not as badly as they had been when she first woke up, she'll probably be able to walk now without feeling like she's going to collapse after only two steps. One of the Healers reckons that the Cruciatus Curse hit her in the spine at least once which would leave some lasting damage long after she had been released from the curse. Of course, that and being magically punted into giant tree would definitely fuck with one's ability to walk properly. Fortunately, the Healers, after doing some further research, believe that Aurelia will make a full recovery within a couple months.

Aurelia stands shakily on her feet, lifting her legs to see how much it hurts and if it'll be possible for her to walk without falling flat on her face. If she does, at least Nymphadora isn't around to see it this time, she's never going to live that down — not even near-death experiences can stop them from teasing each other.

Someone, in a fast pace shuffle approaches Aurelia, she can tell by the silence accompanied with the shuffling that it's not a Healer who's about to tell her to get back into bed. Aurelia looks up to come face to face with Alice Longbottom. Her usual expressionless face is replaced with a look of determination, Aurelia smiles at her and both of Alice's eyes twitch like she's trying to narrow her eyes but it's too much effort for her.

"Hello," Aurelia says softly, "Would you like something?"

Alice starts at her unblinking and then her mouth starts moving but no words come out. Aurelia stares at her, she surprisingly has a lot of patience in this moment, if Ellie had come up to her doing this, she probably would've socked him. But, that could be more to do with him being her like her annoying older brother and the fact he's just annoying by default and less to do with the fact that she has no patience for being a Hufflepuff.

_Answers_ , Alice says, I _want answers. Who are you — why am I here — where is my son — what happened_?

And so, Aurelia tells Alice Longbottom what happened almost fourteen years ago, at least she tells Alice what she knows about what happened that fateful night. Perhaps, Alice's fractured memories can fill in the blanks that Aurelia gives her. When Aurelia finishes telling her what happened and giving her a run down of what happened in the thirteen years since they've been in St. Mungo's.

_So, you're telling me that fourteen years have gone by and I just didn't notice it_? Alice questions, disbelief lacing her dry tone. Although her expression is blank, Aurelia can imagine by the tone of her voice that she'd be raising an eyebrow at her if she could.

"Well, in a sense, that's what I'm trying to say but it's a bit more complicated than that," Aurelia replies, trying to chose her words carefully. Her patience is wearing thin and she wishes that it was a lot more easier to convince Alice of the situation she's in. But, Aurelia knows that she must keep her cool, one wrong movement or one wrong word and all the process she's made with Alice, even if it's not a lot, could be erased.

_I think you're crazy_ , Alice says flatly and Aurelia can imagine that Alice would be glaring at her if she could.

"Fair enough," Aurelia agrees, "But, everyone in here thinks that you're the one who is crazy. I'm just a murderer in the making to them."

_The people in St. Mungo's, you mean, that's where we are, aren't we_?

"Yes, it is. We're in the Janus Thickey Ward . . . Do _you_ remember why you're here," Aurelia says, prompting her to think, to remember the truth.

Alice's mind goes silent and Aurelia frowns and wonders if she shouldn't have pushed her like that. Then finally after what seems like hours, which was probably only ten minutes, Aurelia can hear mumbled words come from Alice's mind. From the sounds of it, Alice is talking to herself, trying her best to remember what happened and the distressed tone of her voice makes Aurelia feel terrible for asking.

_. . . She stole Asterope . . . She — Andy, no, no not Andy — it was Goyle! Goyle stole Asterope for the — for the plan . . ._

"What plan? I don't understand why would Goyle steal me?"

_I — the one Voldemort planned, think — don't remember the details — and she hurt someone to get Asterope — But, Bella she — she came to our door in the middle of the night in hysterics and Asterope was covered in blood, Frank tired to get the password from her but she was too hysterical and Asterope looked dead and — she revealed herself — a trap — and we tried to fight her but she had Asterope and we couldn't let anything happen to her, she was just a baby —_

"She — my aunt used me to get to you — I was there the night you were tortured?"

_She was only Neville's age — we didn't know the answers, we knew nothing but she — Merlin, her screams and then pain and bright light — there was a man — wait no . . . It was Frank who convinced her to leave Asterope and then — and then — I can't remember but there was pain, through out everything there was pain — and that's why I'm in St. Mungo's but I — I can't have been here for fourteen years, that's impossible_!

Aurelia brain is like a storm, her thoughts and emotions whizzing around her skull as she tries to process this information, her chest heaves slowly as her panic builds — her aunt used her to bait the Longbottoms, Bellatrix used her to torture the Longbottoms into insanity. She swallows the lump in her throat and tries her best to ignore her feelings — _help Alice first_.

Aurelia frowns "It's not as impossible as you think it is, Alice, the war especially the end of it was a terrible time, there was chaos and people running rampant. People were thrown in Azkaban sometimes without trials. What happened to you . . . It was a miracle that you and Frank survived."

_No_ , Alice says, _no! You must be lying! It hasn't been that long! It can't have been that long — you're lying — liar! Liar! You're not Asterope — who are you really?_

And then, surprisingly because of the state she's in but unsurprisingly because of her tone of mental voice — Alice lunges at Aurelia but her attempt is thwarted by another patient who steps in between Aurelia and Alice. The woman crashes right into the man's chest, it must've taken all her efforts to make such a quick movement that she probably couldn't stop herself even when she knew that someone was in her way. Alice makes a strange but quiet hissing noise, Aurelia looks on concerned but the stranger, brooding man wears an expression of annoyance.

"Stop," He says to Alice, gripping her shoulders in what looks like a painfully tight grasp, the man picks her up so she's standing up right and then he says "Leave."

Aurelia wants to yell at him for handling her so roughly but all that comes out is a weak whisper of "Stop hurting her."

Alice stares at him blankly, Aurelia expects her to put up a fight but she turns on her heel, after a weirdly tense staring contest, and goes back to her area on the ward. The strange man turns to Aurelia and with what looks like great effort, he smiles at her and then he plops down on Aurelia bed, his expression morphs back into his usual piercing glare as he scans the ward almost as if he's expecting someone else to come and attack Aurelia.  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE STRANGE MAN** with piercing grey eyes and dark unruly hair sits by Aurelia's side for hours, he only leaves when Neville shows up and he decides after staring at Neville for a good five minutes that he's not a threat to Aurelia and then he leaves and Aurelia swears he vanishes out of the Ward, she wonders if he was even a patient here.

"Why was he sitting with you?" Neville asks, his tone fearful and on the verge of judgmental.

"I guess I just attract strange people," Aurelia says with a wry smile then she adds in a softer tone, "I don't know who he is, do you?"

"No, no really . . . I'm not even sure if he's a resident here. I swear he comes and goes and when I ask a Healer about him, they just give me weird looks . . I think he used to be a Death-Eater, I — I swear I saw the — that mark on his arm one day. I think he's bad news."

"Oh okay," Aurelia says dryly, looking at her hands as she's consumed by a bitter awkwardness. She hated the topics of Death-Eaters especially since almost everyone in her family was one.

Neville must sense that something's gone awkwardly wrong although he's not entirely sure what it was, he presents Aurelia with a bouquet of sunflowers as an attempt to fix things "Here, I brought you some flowers."

He says it as though her bedside isn't covered in an assortment of yellow flowers, he smiles at her and says "I can make them into a flower crown for you."

They make small talk as Neville fashions the sunflowers into crowns, he asks about his mum and Aurelia hesitates to tell him because his mum had tried to tackle her not that long ago.

"Has she said anything new," Neville asks hopefully.

"Well, not exactly," Aurelia says with a shrug, there's no fucking way that she's going to tell Neville what his mum had told her. Neville would never talk to her again if she did.

Neville's face falls and Aurelia frowns sympathetically, "She keeps doing the same thing over and over again, some times, she'll word it differently or she'll remember something else but it's always the . . . Same? It's kind of like clockwork, I suppose."

She had encountered Alice three more times through out her stay at St. Mungo's; four if you count the one that happened this morning. She'd tell Aurelia that she knew her, Aurelia would tell her she didn't, Alice would refuse to believe that it wasn't nineteen eighty-one anymore, and then she'd think to hard and pause for a moment and then start all over again. It's like a loop, not exactly the same every time it repeated but it always repeated. It was most different this morning but that could just be because Aurelia gave her more information but it was still similar to their other encounters.

Aurelia's come to the conclusion that Alice has trouble retaining her thoughts and memories. She could be wrong as she's not a professional but it's something she can use to make a theory. She now knows where to start when it comes to helping the Longbottoms and she was going to find the way to bring them back someway, somehow.

"Should we tell someone," Aurelia wonders, after telling Neville more about his mum's behaviour.

Neville thinks for a moment, he notices she's shivering so he tugs off his Gryffindor jumper and hands it to her. "I don't think they'll believe us," He replies, stifling a laugh as Aurelia's head gets caught in the arm of his jumper.

Aurelia mulls his answer over in her head as she struggles to get her head through the right hole. He's got a point, they're just kids. If trained professionals couldn't find anything what makes anyone think that a highly untrained fourteen-year-old girl could. Most healers had given up on the Longbottoms. They had been written off a lost cause, Healers think that they're too far gone and perhaps at times that's true but there's still hope. Perhaps, the three of them aren't completely gone, they're just trapped. Lost in their minds, almost in a dreamlike state, like Alice in Wonderland, or that Muggle condition they call a 'coma'. Aurelia's not sure how to explain it but Alice and Frank are still there in some ways and she's determined to bring them back.

Which may come as a difficult task to her considering she can't even put on a jumper properly. Neville chuckles and helps her put the red and gold jumper on the correct way after she fails to do so herself three times in a row.

Aurelia sighs exasperated with herself "I'm gonna find a way to work on my Legilimency skills this year, m'kay? Then I'll come back in the summer to see if I can contact her again and if I can we'll tell someone then . . . Does that sound like a plan," Aurelia wonders, pulling her pink curls into a half-assed ponytail.

"It sounds like a — a great plan but you don't — you don't have to do that, Ari, Legilimency is really complicated," Neville says uncertainly.

But even at her words, Neville smiles brightly, the fact that Aurelia's trying to help his parents makes him feel all warm and fuzzy. It's not just the fact that he thinks the world of Aurelia that makes him believe that she's going to be the one who helps his parents getter better. Neville knows that if anyone can make even the slightest difference in his parents' lives it's going to be Aurelia. He appreciates her efforts more than his words can ever express.

It's been so long since someone's actually tried to do something with his parents, his grandmother had give up years ago not because she wanted to but because it hurt her too much to watch all her attempts fail every time. And his Aunt Lillian never bothered with his parents, she had been the first to tell him they were a lost cause even though it had made him cry. Aurelia grins back at him, taking his warm hands into her cold ones.

"It's fine, Neville, I want to, besides complicated magic is always easier to me than simple magic," Aurelia says firmly, "I'll probably master Legilimency before I get Wingardium Leviosa right."

_I'd do anything for you_ , Aurelia thinks. Ever since she had found out what happened to the Longbottoms when she was just a little girl, Aurelia's always had a burning desire to help them. The Longbottoms' fate had been one of the reasons Aurelia had decided to start creating her own spells. Now, years after creating spells, she's got the experience and a theory that might help create a spell that help the Longbottoms. She's going to get Neville's parents back, Aurelia squeezes Neville's hands, _I promise you, I'll bring them back to you_.

Aurelia rests her head on Neville's shoulder as they lapse back into silence, Neville continues on with the flower crown and it feels nice, it feels right being with him; they just fit together so perfectly. The only thing keeping this moment from being peaceful is the haunting idea that Aurelia had been there when the Longbottoms were attacked — she was the Trojan Horse and the Longbottoms were the city of Troy, Bellatrix was the one who burned them to the ground.

"Well," Neville says, "If anyone can figure how to fix my parents, it would be you, you're brilliant, Ari!"

Aurelia tries to smiles but it comes out as more of a grimace, luckily Neville thinks that she's making the face because she's in pain. But, really she was drowning in guilt, would he say that if he knew she was the reason for his parents' downfall?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A LINE WITHOUT A HOOK](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/636585977021956096/wattpad-ao3-quotev-%F0%93%86%8F) made by me
> 
> The Longbottoms deserved better and no you cannot change my mind, also will I be bringing the Longbottoms back just so they can help their old friends and their partner in crime help take down Voldy,,, you fucking bet!!! Who do you think is going to recover first: Alice or Frank? Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> P.S.A,,, I published that [Steve Harrington fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29252571/chapters/71830899) I mentioned in the last chapter. I only have the introduction/extended summary posted but I would still really appreciate it if you checked it out!!!
> 
> word count: 8,336


	11. Darling Donum Vitae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black has a identity crisis, the thrilling prequel to many, many sequels of identity crisis . . .

****

**CHAPTER NINE** :

 **009 ||** Darling Donum Vitae

* * *

**AURELIA IS GLAD** to be home. She's glad to be in her own room, glad to be away from the white walls of the Janus Thickey Ward. She's so glad to be free from St. Mungo's. She's been home for almost two weeks now, most of her time is spent researching what could be wrong with Alice and Frank Longbottom, outside the brutal effects of the Cruciatus Curse, that is. And besides that day when Ellie, Mae, and Aurelia had went dress shopping — Ellie had actually tried on a dress and he had actually looked good in it — and that day Mae took her to the mainland to buy some Muggle textbooks about how the brain works from that Muggle bookstore in Fionnphort, Aurelia's hulled herself up in her room.

She's done nothing but study those books, take notes, and listen to Abba. Take right now for example: Aurelia's jotting down some notes about how the cerebellum is the part of the brain that plays a major role in balance, motor control, emotional functions, attention, and language while Slipping Through my Fingers plays softly on her gramophone. She's so engrossed in her research that not even the smell of chocolate chip cookies distracts her.

Every once in awhile, she'll stop taking notes to replay Slipping Through my Fingers. It's her favourite Abba song, it reminds her a faint memory of she can't quite remember as well as her other memories but she remembers this song, the feeling of being loved wholeheartedly, being protected. She felt safe, she felt loved like she's never been before in her whole life. Aurelia turns another page of her new writing book and scribbles down some more notes, someone knocks on her door and she mumbles: "Come in." not even bothering to take her eyes off her work.

Mae slips into her room "Are you alright, dear? I made cookies and you didn't come runnin' down the stairs, is somethin' the matter," she says, laughing lightly.

"M'busy," Aurelia mumbles.

"How can one be too busy for cookies," Mae teases, skipping over to Aurelia. Mae pouts "Your leavin' for school tomorrow, wee moon, are you really going to stay in your room all night?"

Aurelia pauses and shakes her head "No, not all night."

"You know, you can bring that downstairs and hang out with Ellie and I . . . Instead of locking yourself in your room," Mae says.

Aurelia places her pen down, maybe she should take a break. After all, she won't see Mae until next June. "Okay, okay!" Aurelia says, grinning as she looks down at Mae whp grins right back.

"First, I want to show you somethin'," Mae tells Aurelia, her grin turning from playful to mischievous as she tugs on the lilac-haired teen's arm.

Aurelia allows herself to be dragged out of her room, Mae giggles giddily as she brings her up to her bedroom on the fourth floor of the castle. Before entering the bedroom, Mae covers Aurelia's eyes. "You know how you wanted a dress with flowers on it but we couldn't find any?" Mae questions.

Aurelia nods, trying to pry Mae's hands from her eyes but the redhead scolds her "Nooo, wee moon, it's a surprise!"

Aurelia sighs, letting her hands fall to her sides. Mae giggles, practically jumping up and down as she leads Aurelia into her room. She removes her hands, allowing Aurelia to see once more. "Well, wee moon, what do you think," Mae asks, looking expectantly at Aurelia.

Aurelia looks at the dress in front of her in awe. When they had went dress shopping it hadn't taken long for Aurelia to find the almost perfect dress that might have been a little too fancy for the Yule Ball. It had almost been perfect when they had bought it, Mae had made it perfect. The yellow ball gown's placed upon a mannequin. When it had been purchased the entire dress had been a yellow colour and sleeveless but now top half is a silky white decorated in white fabric flowers. It now has semi-transparent sleeves, some of the white flowers have been placed on the skirt of the dress in a sparse pattern, decorating it like the frost decorates the grass in the early morning.

"Well, wee moon," Mae asks as she places a hand on Aurelia's shoulder, "Do you like it?"

Aurelia nods vigorously "Aye, Aye I do, mum — Mae, I love it!"

Mae smiles brightly "Would you mind tryin' it on for a wee bit? I want to make sure I didn't completely ruin the neckline by addin' the sleeves."

Once again, Aurelia nods vigorously.

"Wonderful! I'll help you put it on it. It's a bit difficult to put it on all by yourself but you can just ask one of your friends for help when the time comes," Mae explains, removing the dress from the mannequin.

Aurelia nods, pulling her jumper off then her tank top that had been underneath it, she glances around Mae's room. She hadn't spent a lot of time on the fourth floor of the castle in the years she's been at Almerry Castle much less the redhead's room. Mae's room is rather large though not as large as her own. The purple-gray walls of the room are covered in paintings and drawing of her aunts, mum, herself, and Ellie. It's cluttered with art supplies and scraps of fabric. Mae's room is a lot more cluttered than she expects it to be considering how clean the rest of the castle is.

"It might be easier to get in the dress if you take off your jeans off. The fabric of the dress might catch on your jeans," Mae suggests, undoing the lace on the back of the dress.

Aurelia undos then kicks off her pants without a second thought, her eyes still scanning the room.

Mae helps her into the dress and begins to lace it up, wondering: "How does it feel?"

"Good," Aurelia mumbles in reply, "Can you tie it a wee bit tighter?"

"O' course."

Aurelia looks over at the fireplace, the flames are cackling loudly and above it rests a large mantle covered in moving pictures. One in particular catches her eye.

"Is that alright," Mae asks.

Aurelia nods, blue eyes focused on a picture of her aunt. She walks over to it and grabs it off the mantle. _Oh, Merlin . . . What if Seamus is right? What if all the rumours are true?_

"Wee moon?"

The pictures is of her Aunt Bellatrix and her little baby self, Aurelia couldn't have been more than two months old when this photo had been taken. It was definitely her, the little tuft of gold, shimmery hair on the baby's head is unmistakably her's. Her aunt is cradling her in her arms, she glares at the camera for a moment then Aurelia's baby self gives a little yawn or a little cry and Bellatrix's glare turns into a look of pure adoration as she looks down at the baby in her arms. Aurelia's heart aches with every replay of the photo, even her own mother didn't look at her like this. Mae stands on her tiptoes to see what Aurelia's looking at, her giddy expression falls when she sees it.

"Your father took that photo," Mae recalls, "Practically dove to get the camera. . . It was the first time your parents had seen Trix smile in years, also one of the few times she had cried, he had to get that on camera. He never let her live that one down."

"Why," Aurelia asks hoarsely.

Mae blinks "Well, they were always at —"

"No, I mean why is she looking at me like that? Even me own mother never looked at me like that! Is — Is she my mother?!"

Mae frowns but scoffs "Where on Earth did you get an idea like that?!"   
"I look so — so much like her, I remember her so viv — vividly, I — and it would make sense on why she would use me against the Longbottoms and — and I —"

Mae places a warm hand on her shoulder "You are not her child."

There's something off about Mae's voice when she says that. Aurelia turns on her with narrowed eyes "Don't lie to me, Mae! Just tell me, am —"

"Is tusa. Tha mi duilich," Mae speaks in Gaelic, smiling sadly at Aurelia before adding in English: "Don't you tust me, wee moon?"

Aurelia's doesn't speak Gaelic, not fluently at least, and she's got no idea what Mae had just said but she nods. She trusts Mae, she trusts her with her life. Mae cups Aurelia's face with her warm hands "Trix just really loved you . . . And, Draco. And she most certainly didn't use you against the Longbottoms, she would never hurt a child. I don't know where you got that from but that didn't happen. Okay, my darling Donum Vitae?"

Donum Vitae means 'the Gift of Life' in Latin and it's one of the pet names Mae calls her. Although, Mae typically saves it for special occasions, Mae has always preferred to call Aurelia 'wee moon' which always confused Aurelia because she was named after a star. But even though it confused her she guesses 'wee moon' fit her considering Aurelia used to be obsessed with moons and stars before that happened but, Donum Vitae is lost to her. Aurelia was most certainly not a gift of life.

"Why do you call me that," Aurelia asks, lowering the photograph and allowing Mae to take it.

Aurelia knows it was a weird and also very bad change of subject but she didn't want to think about that photograph anymore, it only made her feel sad.

"Why wouldn't I," Mae counters, smiling brightly.

"I'm not a gift of life, mum — Mae," Aurelia retorts, accidentally calling Mae 'mum' again. She's been doing that a lot since the attack at the Quidditch World Cup.

"You are, wee moon," Mae insists, "My special Donum Vitae . . . You are so special to me, Asterope Aurelia Black, don't you ever think otherwise. You and Ellie are the best things in my life, I don't know what I'd do without the two of yous."

Aurelia smiles softly "I get Ellie . . . But, me?"

"Both of you," Mae says as she strokes Aurelia's cheek, "you are my love, my life."

"Did you just. . . ?"

Mae merely winks at her as she helps Aurelia out of the dress "Are you gonna tell me where on Earth you got it in your pretty little head that Trix used you against the Longbottoms and how long have you been thinking that terrible thought which isn't true?"

"I don't think you'll believe me if I tell you," Aurelia says, she's not sure if she can tell her, she and Neville had decided not to tell anyone what Aurelia can do but this was Mae. She tells Mae nearly everything, there were very few things that Aurelia kept from Mae, but mind-reading antics were usually not one of them. After all, it was Mae who she confided in when she first heard thoughts, if it weren't for Mae then Aurelia would have no idea how to work her Legilimency skills as well as she can, which isn't well at all but it would be non-existent if not for Mae.

"O' course, I'll believe you, Asterope, I'll always believe you. Now please tell me, I'm deeply concerned by this," Mae says as she hangs up the dress and Aurelia chews on her lower lip, thinking of how to explain the whole situation without sounding like she's crazy.

"Alice Longbottom told me . . . Through her thoughts . . . We talked quite a lot while I was at St. Mungo's."

Mae blinks, her jaw drops open and there's a moment of silence and then finally in a quivering voice Mae asks: "You talked to . . . Alice Longbottom . . . What did — what did she say to you?"

"Well, we talked about a lot of things, sort of, like mostly how she got into St. Mungo's but she'd keep forgetting what we would talk about when we weren't talking about it and — and at one point she said that I was there — I was there the night Bellatrix attacked them . . . She said that she used me to get into their house and — and . . . I just — is that true?"

Mae pales but she shakes her head "No, it's not true. Bellatrix would never use a baby for her dirty work, she'd never involve children. Your aunt was — she was a lot of things but she wasn't cruel enough to hurt children. You weren't used against the Longbottoms, I don't know why Alice would think that but it's not true."

Aurelia's shoulders slump and she lets out a sigh of relief.

"And anyway, you would not be to blame for what happened to them if you had been involved . . . You do know that, right? Asterope Aurelia, you were just a baby then, you would have had no say in the matter. But, luckily, you were asleep in your crib the entire night it happened. You can stop your worrying, wee moon," Mae say softly, opening her arms so that she can hug Aurelia.

Aurelia falls into Mae's warm embrace and weeps quietly. It was a relief to know that Bellatrix hadn't used her against the longbottoms but she can't help but wonder where Alice got the idea that Aurelia was there that night. How did Alice even know who she was? Mae kisses Aurelia's forehead while muttering some comforting words and all of Aurelia's troubles seem to melt away.  
  


* * *

* * *

**THIS MORNING OF** September first is more chaotic than the previous two she had spent with Ellie and Mae. Mostly because Ellie had 'impaled' himself with his eyeliner pencil and he had screamed bloody murder about it for five minutes like the dramatic bitch that he is.

"Pancakes good," Mae wonders.

Aurelia nods, reaching for another pancake. In the distance, Aurelia can hear Ellie cursing out his eyeliner pencil, yet again.

"Are you excited to be goin' back to Hogwarts," Mae wonders, placing more pancake batter on the grill.

Minus the Triwizard Tournament and the fact that a lot of people will be asking if she actually survived the Killing Curse or not, thanks to Rita Skeeter — "Yeah."

Mae grins and Aurelia returns it.

While she's excited for the Yule Ball and going with Neville — _or well, shit, you can't take your best friend to the Yule Ball, you have to take someone you have a crush on, or something like that_. But, of course, she'd think of Neville first, he's her best friend. She much rather do without the rest of the Triwizard Tournament, because the tasks are never good and never easy and she still can't believe that Albus fucking Dumbledore thought it'd be a great idea to bring it to Hogwarts.

Aurelia excuses herself from the kitchen to go and get dressed. She's already got her outfit planned out, a red cropped shirt and a pair of grey, slim-fitting jeans. Then, of course, she's got to put her make up on to hide her scars, Aurelia's got to put on a bit more than usual to hide the long and very deep scars on her stomach because of the top that she picked out.

The werewolf had struck her twice, once across the face and then once across her chest and stomach. The latter of the injuries had been the worst and it had almost killed her but luckily, Mae had been able to heal her with some Muggle remedies. In between the two strikes, Aurelia had managed to punch her snout, which made the werewolf angry and the second strike had been the worst. Aurelia decides she's got to tell her friends some time this year about the whole werewolf thing, she's getting rather tired of applying this make-up every single day. They'll probably think she's ugly but she thinks most of her friends — by now, at least — like her for her fantastic sense of humour more than her looks. So, they might not leave her like the others did. And, Neville . . . Well, she highly doubts that he finds her attractive as it is now, just imagine what he'll think when he sees the scars.

She shudders at the thought, don't think about that now, she pulls off her pyjamas and starts putting on her clothes. Aurelia smears the make-up across the scars on her stomach, the pale alabaster of the make-up turns to a pale peach colour, matching the colour of her skin. She cringes at the cool, moist feeling of it against her skin; she hates it but it's the best gift she's ever received.

Aurelia looks at the three scars on her face. The longest of them starts at her hairline and stops just at the tip of her nose, the top scar starts at the outer corner of her eye and stops at the bridge of her nose, and the bottom scar starts on the top of her cheekbone and stops on her lower lip. She hates them. She hates herself. Why did she have to run away that night, her dad hadn't meant to hurt her. He had apologised so why had she thought it would be a good idea to run from her home?

 _She had been so stupid, so terribly stupid_.

"You're a fucking twat," She tells her reflection.

Aurelia tugs on her jeans and then her shirt, she turns back around to look her in the mirror and observe her appearance and make sure she's covered all the scars on her stomach. She makes the reckless decision not to cover the scars on her face, she'll just use her Metamorphmagus abilities to hide them. A decision, she feels deep down, she's going to regret.

Her outfit, as Olivia would say, is the the bomb dot com. Satisfied with her appearance, Aurelia grabs her leather jacket and heads downstairs.

When she enters the kitchen, Ellie's stuffing his face with pancakes. Aurelia's certain he can out eat Ron. Ellie pauses, a forkful of pancakes inches from his open mouth as he scrutinises her appearance. She realises they're dressed similarly and she sighs knowing what Ellie's going to do next. He glances down at his cropped green shirt with grey stripes on the sleeves and black high-waisted, slim-fitting jeans. Ellie gives Aurelia a condescending 'Hmmm."

She rolls her brown eyes.

"One of us is going to have to change and it ain't going to be me," Ellie sings-songs.

Aurelia flips him off then reaches up to grab a travelling mug from the cupboards.

"Hey! You have the same, uh —" He says, waving his arm about as he tries to think of the word for it, "— birthmark as mum!"

He's referring to the reddish-brown, sort of cat-faced shape on her stomach.

"I do . . ." She asks, giving him a weird look because how the fuck can I have the same birthmark as Mae? She turns her head to look at Mae "I do?"

Mae nods, smiling softly although her body looks tense "Aye, you do. But, mine's darker and the points are a wee bit —"

"The ears . . . It's a . . . A cat," Aurelia cuts her off, smiling sheepishly as she points at her birthmark which is partially hidden by her waistline.

Mae tilts her head, her smile growing wider "Oh, it kinda does look like a cat, well, what do you know!"

Aurelia grins, thoroughly confused by the fact she has the same birthmark as Mae, how is that even possible? Maybe, it's just a coincidence. . . It has to be, right?

Aurelia pulls out her wand from her back pocket to turn the kettle on, she gives it a little flick and the button is magically turned on. Mae gives Aurelia a look beacause she doesn't like it when her or Ellie use magic for such simple tasks but she doesn't say anything because to the Ministry the little spell she just cast is a but a wee fluke in the Trace Charm. As far as the Ministry believes, no one has lived inside Almerry Castle since the late seventies, they won't look into it, they never do when she does something in the castle. Ellie summoned a whole ass feast once and they didn't hear a peep from the Ministry.

Aurelia's got a theory that it's the magic surrounding the castle that keeps the Ministry from being alerted of underage magic. It makes sense since the castle's been around for almost seven hundred years, there's probably magic around and in it that people today have no idea about. When she had been at Olivia's house she had, without thinking, used her magic to turn on the Television because she couldn't find the remote and she had gotten a very severe warning from the Ministry. So, Aurelia has the Trace, it just for some reason doesn't work at Almerry Castle.

"You two packed and ready to go," Mae queries, pulling out the raspberry tea for Aurelia, already knowing that's what she wants.

"Just about, I've just got to get Freddie into his crate." Aurelia says, the task itself shouldn't take too long.

"But, he doesn't want to be caged," Ellie snickers, "He wants . . . To break free."

"And, I want to throttle you." Aurelia says, smiling sweetly.

"C'mon that was good, admit it!"

"I'd rather be eaten by a dragon!"

"Well, I saw a Hebridean Black in the sky early this morning so that can be arranged!"

* * *

* * *

**FOR SOME REASON** , King's Cross Station seems to be more overwhelming this year. Maybe it's because Mae hadn't accompanied them this time, she had errands to run so she dropped them off at Travis' Inn where they had used the the Floo Network to get to the platform, or maybe it's because a lot of people are staring at her and she knows she's not imagining it this year. But, she keeps her mind clear and calm despite the panic inside that's threatening to boil over. Aurelia's got to stay calm, it's the only thing hiding her scars. _Stay fuckin' calm_ , she tells herself as she takes a deep breath, _no one needs to know you were attacked by a werewolf just yet._

She'd tell her friends first, then depending on their reactions, she'd let her scars be free. Others can guess how she got them for all she care, of course, after the Quidditch World Cup, most of them will assume she got them from Gwendoline Goyle. Which in Aurelia's mind, is far better than them knowing that she got attacked by a werewolf. But, she doubts she actually tell anyone about her scars any time soon, even just thinking about telling someone is making her eyes burn and her throat close up.

"Listen, I know I look great in a crop top but y'all can stop staring, that'd be great, thanks!" Ellie announces dramatically to the crowd, slinging an arm around Aurelia's shoulder. If anything, his outburst draws more attention to Aurelia, but she appreciates his motives.

"Now, more people are staring," She says teasingly.

"Yeah, but are they staring at you or my dramatic ass? Now, that's the real question, cuz!"

"Oh."

"AURELIA," A shrill shriek pierces through the loud chatter of the platform. The shrill shriek belongs to, Marigold Wilkes. A redheaded Ravenclaw in the fourth year that Aurelia had befriended back in first year shortly after Christmas holiday. Aurelia glances over her shoulder to see Mari running towards her. Which is extremely shocking because Marigold Wilkes doesn't run, not even when she's late for Professor McGonagall's class.

"You're alive," Mari exclaims.

Aurelia laughs, disregarding the fact people are staring and runs to meet Mari halfway. Mari hugs her tightly, sweeping her off her feet much to Aurelia's surprise.

"You're alive," Mari exclaims, more maniacally this time as she spins Aurelia around.

Mari is six feet tall and all muscle, it's a running joke that Mari's family are half-giant because of how tall they all are. Aurelia is five-foot seven and is practically skin and bones so to Mari, picking her is as easy as picking up a paintbrush. Mari puts her down after a few seconds then brushes her shoulder length hair from her freckled face "My whole family was in Amsterdam all vacation, we just got back last night and I found out you died! Holy moly! Are you alright? Did you actually get hit by the Killing Curse?!"

"No, and I'm right as rain, Mari," Aurelia replies.

"Really?"

"Really, really."

Mari hugs her again "You gave me quite a scare!"

"Yes, well, next time I'll try my damn best to not get attacked by the Death-Eater who's wanted me dead since before I could walk at the next Quidditch World Cup," Aurelia quips.

"You better," Mari says, completely missing the sarcasm in Aurelia's voice.

Aurelia rolls her eyes, turning back to look at Ellie only to see that her cousin has wandered off. He must've spotted George, at least this time he had been nice enough to take her things for her.

"Have you seen Liv or Han yet," Aurelia asks Mari.

Mari shakes her head "I haven't seen Livie yet, I think I saw Hannah but she'd be on the train by now."

"Have you heard from Han recently?"

"Yes, why?"

"Oh, well . . . I think she's mad at me then. She didn't reply to my letters this summer and that's not like her, I sent her two, y'know nothing more than usual and I didn't hear a peep from her."

"She's not mad at you, she was just busy this summer."

"She wrote to you!"

"After being attacked by a bloody Death-Eater, this is what you're worried about," Mari asks, giving her an incredulous look.

"Aye, I am."

"You really are a strange one, Black," Mari says, shaking her head as the two of them board the train.

Aurelia rolls her eyes but she's still worried. She can't think of any good reasons as to why Hannah would ignore her, she hopes that Hannah's not mad at her as she doesn't want to lose Hannah as a friend, Aurelia really likes Hannah.

Before Aurelia can question Mari further, the redhead waves her off, saying: "It's probably nothing. Or at least, nothing like you're thinking, Blue."

"You're right," Aurelia sighs but she's still worried nevertheless.

"I've got to go give Heather some money for the trolley, she left before father could give her any. Then, I'll look for Livie and Hannah, so I'll see you later," Mari says, smiling.

"M'kay, see you around then!"

The two split up, Aurelia wanders off, looking for her other friends. Aurelia finds Seamus and Dean first, they're already sitting in a compartment and laughing away about something. She slides into the compartment, announcing: "Hello, you Gryffinbitches, your Huffleslut has arrived!"

The both stop to stare at her, Seamus is the first to react, jumping to his feet and tackling her into a hug.

"You're alright," He shrieks and he hugs her tightly, rocking her back and forth. As much as Aurelia appreciates the hug, she tries to push him off.

Dean raises an eyebrow, still looking quite shocked as he asks: "Did you just call yourself a slut?"

"No, I called myself a Huffleslut, there's a difference."

"There is? Well, please enlighten me," Dean says sarcastically.

Seamus lets go of her and sits back down beside Dean, Aurelia straighten out her outfit as she replies: "There's no difference, Ellie called me that once during a game of Quidditch this summer and now I refuse to be referred to as anything less than a Huffleslut."

There's a choking noise behind her, she glances behind herself and smiles wide when she sees Neville, who's choking on his Pumpkin Patsy.

"Awright there, Plant Boy," She greets him and he waves, unable to speak as he tries to swallow the treat stuck in his throat.

"You alright there, mate," Seamus asks.

Neville nods, still choking.

"Here," Aurelia reaches into her messenger bag and pulls out her traveller's mug of raspberry tea, "Use this to wash it down!"

Neville grabs the mug and chugs it down. Once his throat's cleared, he says "Thanks" and pulls Aurelia into a tight hug. Her hair turns bright pink and her face grows warms and she pushes Neville away before she melts in his arms. Why does he make her feel so helpless? Neville's face is almost as pink as her hair "It's good to see you . . . Ari, really good —"

Seamus snickers and Dean elbows him in the ribs.

"How are you, Ari," Neville asks.

The feeling in the compartment changes completely with just a simple question. Aurelia shifts uncomfortably, feeling Dean and Seamus' eyes on her. Aurelia licks her lips, nodding quickly "M'fine."

"What happened," Seamus asks.

Aurelia frowns talking a deep breath "Well . . ."

* * *

* * *

**AS SHE FINISHES** telling them what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, Aurelia glances around at her friends' shocked faces. Neville's heard the story before so he looks more impressed than shocked.

Seamus blinks, opening and closing his mouth "So — so you stunned Gwendoline bloody Goyle?"

Aurelia blushes "Aye, I s'pose that was rather lame."

Seamus snorts "Lame? You stunned Goyle! You know, it's a miracle you're even alive! Goyle's a merciless Death-Eater that's killed trained Aurors and you took her out with a Stunning Spell! That's not lame, that's bad ass!"

Aurelia squirms in her seat "I guess, but it wasn't even good Stunner, it —"

"It was enough to help you get away from her and that's all that matters," Dean says.

"He's right," Neville agrees, patting her knee.

Aurelia blushes and she thinks she better brush his hand off her knee before her face catches on fire. She jumps up, exclaiming: "Hey, we — we should go find, Potter and co.!"

Luckily, the three boys see nothing wrong with her suggestion. Neville stands up, grabbing her hand, only making her even more flustered. And so, the four friends set off to find the troublesome Gryffindor trio.

As they walk down the corridor, Aurelia holds Neville behind "Hey, Plant Boy . . . Can I show you something?"

Neville frowns, she sounds nervous and she looks like she's going to cry, he nods "Yeah, anything . . . Are you alright?"

Her eyes light up as she replies: "Aye, m'fine! Nym taught me something over the summer, wanna see?"

He nods eagerly "Of course!"

Aurelia smiles nervously and Neville watches on amazed as three nasty scars appear on her face. 

"Wow," He breathes, reaching up and tracing the longest scar.

She leans into his touch, she reckons she could get used to this.

"What — what do you think," She asks nervously.

"They're nasty but they're so cool. It — it's amazing you can do this, you — you're skills have improved so much, they look so real!"

It suddenly feels like she can't breathe. _Nasty. Nasty. Nasty_. He says they look nasty. Well, fuck! What was I actually expecting?! Aurelia laughs loudly "Yeah, they're so real and so ugly, ha! Ha! Ha!" She'd take pity over him saying they're nasty.

Neville's confused by her sudden change of behaviour, his hand falls to his side as he asks: "Are you sure you're alright?"

Aurelia looks down at him with a sickly sweet smile on her red-painted lips "I'm fine. Perfectly fine," She snaps at him, she never snaps at him, and then she starts to cry.

"Ari! Ari, what's wrong," He asks softly, "Why — why are you crying?" Had he done something? No, at least he doesn't think he did.

Aurelia shrugs, feigning confusion as she sobs: "I — I don't know. I — I really don't know why."

Neville hugs her, although he's confused as hell by her behaviour.

"M'sorry for snapping at you. I didn't mean to — to, I really am."

Neville opens his mouth to say something but he's cut off by Seamus who yells: "Hey, love birds, I found them!"

Aurelia forces her scars to go away with all her might, _this had been a terrible idea and you had no right to snap at him like that, shame on you_ , she scolds herself as she makes her way over to Seamus and Dean. Neville follows after her, grabbing her hand as they enter Harry, Ron, and Hermione's compartment.

"Hey!" Seamus greets the three of them, proudly showing off his Irish rosette and then begins their discussion about the World Cup. Thankfully, neither of them brings up what happened Aurelia. Neville listens on jealously to their conversation, he really wished he hadn't been grounded for half the summer and that his gran had actually wanted to go.

"It sounded like it was amazing," Neville says to Ron.

"It was! Here, look at this, Neville!"

Ron rummages through his trunk, pulling out a miniature figure of Viktor Krum.

"Oh, wow," Neville gasps enviously as Ron dumps it into his hands.

"We saw him right up close as well, we were in the Top Box —"

"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley," Draco drawls, standing in the doorway, Crabbe and Goyle flanking his side.

"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Harry says coolly.

"Weasley what is that?!"

When Ron had rummaged through his trunk, he had left a sleeve of old, frilly fabric hanging out and unfortunately for him, Draco had spotted it. Ron makes to hide the fabric but Draco's too quick for him, he seizes the sleeve and pulls it out to reveal very ugly dress robes. "Look at this!" Draco exclaims, looking positively delighted.

"Draco." Aurelia says warningly.

"Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean, they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety —"

"Eat dung, Malfoy," Ron shouts.

Aurelia stands up and bluffs: "Do you really want me to tell Potter about the party of eighty-seven?"

Draco stops laughing "You wouldn't dare!"

Aurelia raises an eyebrow "M'yeah? Try me?"

"I'll tell them about your _accident_ ," Draco whispers harshly and Aurelia sinks back into her seat, looking close to tears. _Ah, yes, because being attacked by a werewolf is fair game for wearing an embarrassing outfit_. Draco smirks victorious and turns back on Ron "Are you going to enter, Weasley? Try to bring a bit of glory to your family's name? There's money —"

"The Weasleys have more glory than our family'll ever have!"

Draco laughs coldly, glancing at Aurelia "You're only saying that because you're bitter and a disgrace —"

Before anyone can stop her, Aurelia's gotten to her feet, brandishing her wand as she snarls: "Anteoculatia!"

Antlers sprout from his platinum hair, he lets out an almost girlish shriek and bolts out of the compartment, Crabbe and Goyle follow after him. Aurelia sinks down in her seat fuming as the boys stare at her with wide-eyed looks, Hermione glances over her book, disapprovingly tutting Aurelia before returning to it. 

Neville turns to Seamus, a goofy grin on his face as he breathes out: "Wow."

Aurelia stays relatively silent for the rest of the train ride. Fuming over what Draco had said to the very minute the Hogwarts Express pulls into Hogsmeade Station. The rain is still pouring down hard and Aurelia thankful that Travis had charmed her umbrella when they passed through this morning the inn this morning. The second the train doors open, she presses the umbrella button like her life depends on it.

She offers Neville a place under the umbrella, telling him: "It's cold as fuck."

Neville chuckles and shrugs off his jacket for her to take.

"I — er — No, Plant Boy, that's not what I meant," She exclaims, waving her arms arounds, "I'll be fine, I swear!"

"It's alright, it looks like you need it more than I do," He remarks.

She shakes her head, shivering. For someone who loves the cold, she doesn't handle it well. Despite her insistence that she doesn't need his jacket, he places the the thicky wooly coat around her shoulders "Th — there ya go."

Aurelia blushes, _stop that! You're too cute for me to handle_! "Thank you, Plant Boy!"

"No problem, Sunflower Girl."

Finally the group reaches the Thestral-drawn carriages, Aurelia and Neville climb in first and Harry, Ron, and Hermione climb in after them. The carriages start moving, Neville, Harry, Ron, and Hermione give Aurelia bewildered looks as she says: "If there isn't any cheesecake at this feast then I'm going to fist fight Albus Dumbledore."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [MAKE THEM GOLD BEST SCENES CH.1-9](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/641522863462121472/make-them-gold-%F0%93%86%8F-neville-longbottom-fanfiction) made by me
> 
> For those of you who remember what a Donum Vitae ( if you remember the old version that is ) then y'all know what's going on here but for those who don't 👀👀👀👀 what do you think it is???? ALSO can we talk about ( we don't actually have to talk about it lol, i'm just being dramatic ) about how iconic the Macleod/Black/Malfoy family is, they're just so soft and chaotic together and we stan Mae, Ellie, and Aurelia in this household. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 6,217


	12. Death Cheater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black attempts to fight multiple professors . . .

****

**CHAPTER TEN** :

 **010 ||** Death Cheater

* * *

" **I'M JUST SAYING** there's no way you'd win a fight against Dumbledore," Ron argues, shaking his head.

Harry agrees with Ron, saying "Dumbledore's like —"

"A century old," Aurelia quips, "I mean a fight without magic."

Harry and Ron stare at her.

"But, then he's just a really old man," Neville mumbles.

"You can't fight the elderly," Hermione cries.

"I will if there's no cheesecake," Aurelia says, smiling innocently.

"Eh, Dumbledore would still win." Ron remarks.

"You know bloody what, Ron, this is why Ginny's my favourite Weasley, she'd been on my side for this," Aurelia exclaims pretending to act betrayed, "And I would totally win, he's so bloody old! His bones are probably more brittle than peanut brittle! I would so bloody win!"

Ron, Hermione, and Harry stare bewildered at Aurelia, Neville sighs exasperatedly "Ari, you . . . You can't just say these things."

"What? The truth?"

Neville sighs again, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ron goes to say something but their carriage comes to an halt, signalling they've arrived at Hogwarts. Aurelia pulls out her umbrella yet again "Muggles say it's bad luck to open these things inside places or what not but since I'm sitting with the literal definition of a bad luck charm I should be fine. Sorry, Harold, but y'know it's true."

Harry gives her a sarcastic laugh before jumping out of the carriage and making a mad-dash to the castle. The others follow behind them, neither Aurelia or Neville are touched by the rain thanks to the charmed umbrella.

"God damn I hate rain," Aurelia exclaims once the pair of them are safely inside the Entrance Hall.

"So do I," Neville agrees, laughing lightly.

Aurelia smiles softly, closing her umbrella and pulling out her wand and muttering: "Tergeo."

The umbrella magically wipes itself dry then Aurelia shoves it back in her messenger bag.

She glances around the Entrance Hall "Well, I'm glad that — woah! What the fuck!"

Neville pulls her back by the collar of his jacket she's wearing without warning and a red, water-filled balloon misses her by inches and instead hits Ron who screams.

Aurelia and Neville share a knowing and exasperated look as they say in sync: "Peeves"

Professor McGonagall comes sweeping into the Entrance Hall, yelling angrily at Peeve to stop what he's doing. The professor slips on the wet floor and nearly comes crashing to the floor but she stops the fall by using Hermione's neck. "Ouch! Sorry, Miss. Granger — PEEVES! Peeves get down here now!"

"Ever wonder what it'd be like to go to a Muggle school — a normal school," Aurelia asks Neville.

"Nowhere near as entertaining as this," A voice that doesn't belong to Neville replies.

Both Neville and Aurelia turn to see, Olivia Newton, standing before them.

Olivia grins at them "Peeves the prat's been doing since I got here, I heard that he got poor Sprout with one."

Aurelia looks down at her friend who's two inches shy from being a whole foot shorter than her and smiles. Olivia's jet black hair is pulled up into a tight bun and she had a Led Zeppelin sweater thrown over her uniform to keep herself warm. "Heard you beat death," Olivia says lightly.

Aurelia blinks and laughs softly "More like someone tried to kill me but missed."

"Oh."

"How did you hear that, I thought your parents didn't like to know about our world?"

"Gossip, love," Olivia says, "That's how. . . Sooo, what happened, I need details!"

"I'll tell you in the dorms, Merlin knows everyone and their mother are going to be asking me that," Aurelia sighs.

"Move along now, everyone into the Great Hall," Professor McGonagall demands sharply.

Aurelia links her one arm with Olivia's and the other with Neville's, glancing at Olivia as she asks: "Shall we sit with this mighty Gryffindor tonight, Liv?"

Olivia glances at Neville and gives a curt nod "I think we shall, Blue."

They're not supposed to sit at the other house tables during the Start-of-Terms and End-of-Term feasts as well as dinners. However, that never stopped them, Aurelia's been sneaking over to the Gryffindor table at dinner since the Halloween feast during first year. Eventually, Olivia and Natalie joined her and they've never been told not to, Neville knows for a fact that Professor McGonagall sees them but she's never made them go back to their own tables. She doesn't encourage it though, she's often given Aurelia and the others disapproving looks when she's spotted them. The three of them head over to the Gryffindor table, Aurelia and Olivia skipping merrily as Neville struggles to follow their lead.

"Did you bring your Mothman shirt," Olivia asks conversationally, referring to the shirt Aurelia had made last spring.

"Of course, I figured out how to make his wings move," Aurelia replies as she beams with pride, "Well, I don't know how to do the spell but I found one that works and had my Uncle Ted charm the shirt so now his wings flap every once and awhile. We tried to charm the wings to move every time some said 'Mothman' but it wouldn't work."

"Groovy," Olivia praises.

Olivia and Aurelia had spent a whole week working on these handmade shirts about Cyprtids or whatever Olivia calls them, creatures that possibly don't exist and Aurelia became obsessed with the one about Mothman. Olivia wanted to use the Loch Ness Monster but Aurelia had to break the news to Olivia that the Loch Ness Monster was very real and Aurelia had once fed it a grilled cheese sandwhich. So, Olivia had begrudgingly settled on Bigfoot.

"More than groovy," Aurelia grins, "It's spooky."

"Good evening," Nearly Headless Nick greets the group of Gryffindor plus the two Hufflepuffs. He doesn't look to thrilled to see the Hufflepuffs but he's too used to their presence to say anything. Nearly Headless Nick gives Aurelia and Olivia a disapproving frown and they in turn smile innocently at him.

"Says who," Harry retorts, dumping water out of his shoe.

"Look, Grease Lightning, no one asked for this little attitude of yours, so quit your sass and sit down on your ass," Olivia quips, sitting next to Seamus.

Harry glares intensely at Olivia "Don't call me that!"

"Make me, stud." Olivia teases, winking at him.

Aurelia rolls her eyes, Olivia and her Grease references. At this point, Aurelia thinks to herself, they have a higher chance of killing Harry than Voldemort does. Neville sits down at the table, Aurelia plops down right by his side.

"There better be cheesecake," Aurelia tells Neville.

He chuckles "Look, I will — will take you for cheesecake tomorrow in the kitchens if there's none out here tonight, Ari."

"If there's cheesecake tonight will you still take me for more tomorrow," Aurelia asks, it could be like a date — _no! What the fuck, Blue_?!

"If you want."

"I always want cheesecake, Plant Boy."

"I couldn't tell, Sunflower Girl."

They grin at each other and burst out laughing.

"What are you two nerds laughing at?" Seamus asks, he only gets louder laughter in response. Seamus looks at Dean and Olivia but, they're just as confused as he is.

"Oh, hurry up, I'm so hungry I could eat a whole Hippogriff," Ron moans loudly.

No sooner does he speak do the doors of the Great Hall open and Professor McGonagall comes in, leading the batch of first years behind her, who look more like drowned rats than eleven-year-old kids. They come to a halt at the top of the hall where Professor McGonagall sets up the stool and the Sorting Hat. As dumb as it sounds, Aurelia loathes the Sorting Ceremony. She loathes how she has to watch a kid's face fall when they don't get into the house they want or when their face lights up when the do get into the the house they want. It's not fair. She never got that, she just disappointed everyone around her.

As it does every year, the Sorting Hat sings a song to commence the Sorting Ceremony. Harry, who's missed the previous two Sorting because, well, he's Harry Potter, remarks: "That's not the same song it sang when it sorted us."

"Sings a different one every year. It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one," Ron says.

"You never know, it might just make them up at the drop of a . . . Hat," Aurelia quips, smiling brightly.

Ron looks at her with a straight face "Shut the bloody hell up, Blue."

Aurelia laughs quietly and Neville covers his mouth to stifle his giggles.

Professor McGonagall begins calling out the names of the first years to be sorted.

"Ackerly, Stewart!"

The hat is placed upon the first year's head: "RAVENCLAW!"

"Baddock, Malcolm!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Fred and George hiss at the poor kid as he goes to sit at the Slytherin table, they do that a lot even though their best friend, Elliot, is a bloody Slytherin. Aurelia claps loudly to drown out their hissing, as soon as Malcolm sits down she stops clapping to stare forlornly at the Slytherins.

"That should've been me," Aurelia mumbles sadly.

"You're meant to be in huff — Hufflepuff," Neville whispers, grabbing Aurelia's hand and squeezing it, "You — you're the most Hufflepuff person I've ever met, mi — minus your lack of pay — patience. . . Being sorted into Slytherin wouldn't have solved anything just — just like being sort — sorted into Gryffindor didn't make things better for me and Lyra."

At the mention of her aunt, Aurelia glances up at the staff to take a look at her aunt. Her least favourite aunt, and that's saying something. However, she hates Lyra for a completely different reason than Bellatrix, she hates Bellatrix for what she did to Neville's parents and being a bad person and then she hates Lyra for how she treats her and Neville, she's terrible to Neville. Lyra's an absolute demon. Lyra likes to act like she had escaped the rottenness that plagues the Black family but she hadn't. She's just as rotten as the rest of them, just in a different way; she may not be prejudiced but she's still a raging bitch. Aurelia had hoped that when she had been sorted in Hufflepuff that it would mean that maybe Lyra would warm up to her. She hadn't; she got worse.

"I guess you're right," Aurelia mumbles, turning her attention back to the Sorting Ceremony.

"Madley, Laura!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

She claps for her newest housemate.

"McDonald, Natalie!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"I do hope this year's batch of Gryffindors are up to scratch. We don't want to break our winning streak, do we," Nearly Headless Nick says.

Except you didn't deserve to win in first year, Aurelia thinks while rolling her eyes. Of course, she believes that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville had deserved to be rewarded for their heroics that year, she just thinks that the Headmaster could've rewarded them by another means than the House bloody Cup. Slytherin had rightfully deserved it that year — also, Neville deserved more than ten measly points!

Finally, the last student is called up to be sorted, he ends up in Hufflepuff and the Sorting Ceremony comes to an end, Professor Dumbledore gets to his feet, his arms wide open in welcome as he says: "I have only two words for you: tuck in."

Aurelia doesn't need to be told twice, reaching for the mashed potatoes as soon as they appear on the table, she fills half her plate with them.

"You and your mashed potatoes," Neville laughs, shaking his head.

Aurelia looks up at him, her heavily-lidded eyes going wider than usual "I fucking love mashed potatoes."

Neville opens his mouth to say something but a clanging sound interrupts them, the pair turn to look and they find that Hermione's knocked over her goblet of pumpkin juice. "There are house-elves here? Here at Hogwarts?" Hermione asks Nearly Headless Nick, horrorstruck.

"Certainly, The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred," He replies

"I've never seen one!"

"Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they? They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning . . . See to the fires and so on . . . I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good House-Elf, isn't it, that you don't know it's there," Nearly Headless Nick explains.

"But they get paid? They get holidays, don't they? And — and sick leave, and pensions, and everything," Hermione questions fervently.

The ghosts chortles loudly "Sick leave and pensions? House-Elves don't want sick leave and pensions!"

"He's right, Hermione," Aurelia cuts in, seeing the apprehensive look on her face, "House-Elves like to work for free, it's typically in their nature. Here at Hogwarts, I highly doubt they're being refused those things you've listed it's just that they don't want it. I'm sure if they asked they'd be given those things right away. Hogwarts treats their House-Elves far better than most."

Still, Hermione pushes her plate away, through a mouthful of food, Ron tries to encourage her to eat but Hermione doesn't listen "Slave labor! That's what made this dinner. Slave labor," Hermione huffs, breathing hard through her nose.

"Oh, boy," Aurelia mumbles, rolling her eyes. She understands where Hermione is coming from, she really does but she knows Hermione and she knows that Hermione is not going to handle this situation very well, as brilliant as she is.

House-Elves were a touchy topic for Aurelia considering neither sides of her family had ever treated House-Elves well, besides her deceased cousin, Regulus and surprisingly her Aunt Bellatrix. Mae treated them as if they were people, some of them were free House-Elves and others were not, it all depened on how well the Elf would take being freed. House-Elves had been enslaved for so long that they had forgotten they were once free creatures that were just attracted to messy homes, it was some rich Pureblood snob who decided to start forcing House-Elves to clean rather than let them come and go when they pleased. It had been so long that enslavement was engraved in their brains from birth. It was terrible and Aurelia hated it but Hermione was not the person she would discuss that with, as much as she liked Hermione. So, Aurelia turns her attention to Neville.

Neville's talking about dress robes, discussing what they might possibly need dress robes for. This surprises Aurelia for a moment because Neville's godmother is a professor Hogwarts so he should've heard about the Triwizard Tournament but then Aurelia remembers Lyra's a piece of shit that doesn't tell him anything unless there's criticism involved.

"Did you have to get dress robes, Ari," Neville wonders.

"Yep! I got a dress and the Disney Princesses won't know what hit 'em," She replies.

Neville stares at her confused and Dean laughs at her comment.

Finally the first course of the feast comes to an end and the food replaces itself with desserts. Aurelia scans the table for her precious cheesecake, when spots it she lets out a blissful sighs. She grabs a large piece of it and digs in.

"Happy now," Neville asks, smiling softly.

"Very," Aurelia replies then shoves a forkful of cheesecake in her mouth.

The desserts eventually clear themselves from the table and once more, Professor Dumbledore gets to his feet, announcing: "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

Aurelia starts to chew on her nails nervously, knowing that one of those notices are going to be about the damned Triwizard Tournament.

Neville gently pulls her fingers from her mouth, reminding her: "You said not — not to let you bite your nails . . . Why are you nervous? You only bite your nails when you're really nervous?"

"You'll see in a few minutes," She says cryptically.

Neville raises an eyebrow, curious to know what she's on about so he turns his attention back to the Headmaster.

"— If anybody would like to check it out. As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you all that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Aurelia chokes on her spit. No doubt that's because of the Triwizard Tournament. Y'know what, Aurelia thinks, double fuck this tournament. First it has the audacity to be life-threateningly dangerous, then it has the audacity to get my Quidditch games cancelled. "This is bullshit." Aurelia huffs angrily, she had practiced real hard this summer.

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy — but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely —"

"Ah, yes! Everyone enjoys a good tournament full of painful death," Aurelia huffs sarcastically to herself.

"I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts —"

There's a deafening rumble of thunder that causes Aurelia to scream, one hand covers her mouth to muffle her scream while the other reaches out to cling onto Neville's jumper. The doors to the Great Hall open and in clambers Mad-Eye Moody. Aurelia's eyes widen in realisation "Oh, fuck! He hired him for DADA?! Great, now there's three professors here who hate me."

Mad-Eye Moody had been the one to try and convict her father and had been the one to arrest her aunt. In the ruins of Almerry Castle or so Nym had told her, is where they had found Bellatrix hiding. Nym describes Almerry as being in ruins but that's just how Moody and the other Aurors saw it, Moody had been the one to find her first and Nym tells her that their aunt had almost went peacefully — surprising, she knows — but then something happened, Nym never tells her what exactly, and long story short two of the Aurors wound up dead and Moody lost three teeth.

"Are you alright, Ari?" Neville asks her.

"Thunder scared me, that's all," Aurelia replies, swallowing her guilt.

Neville nods, seemingly satisfied with her answer then they turn their attention to Moody as he walks up to the teacher's table, his one foot clunking with every step.

Moody shakes hands with Professor Dumbledore then sits at the table, the Headmaster announces that Moody is their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. No one claps save for Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid.

Clearing his throat, Professor Dumbledore continues his speech: "As I was saying, we have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"YOU'RE JOKING," Fred exclaims loudly.

The Great Hall fills with laughter at Fred's outburst and Dumbledore chuckles appreciatively. "I am not joking, Mr. Weasley, though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar . . ."

Professor McGonagall clears her throat loudly.

"Er — but maybe this is not the time . . . No . . . Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament . . . Well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short expla- nation, and allow their attention to wander freely. The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"And whose bright idea was it to bring it back," Aurelia mutters sarcastically.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continues, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger. The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

The Great Hall breaks out in eager whispers.

"The heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, seventeen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration."

Eager whispers turn to angry cries of outrage. However, Aurelia's never felt more relieved in her entire life. _Oh, thank, Merlin! She's safe_! She can't be chosen even as a joke! Aurelia sighs loudly as relief washes over her and the rest of the Headmaster's speech goes in through one ear and out the other. Half the bloody horror stories, she had read about the Tournament can't come true now. She's safe and so are her friends save for Cedric and Ellie who'll be turning seventeen shortly.

When the speech comes to an end, Aurelia bids Neville a goodnight and a spontaneous kiss on the cheek — _you really need to control yourself, girl_! And then she rushes towards her fellow Hufflepuffs before she can see his reaction.

As she's exiting the Great Hall, two older Hufflepuffs flanking her sides, they're in Cedric's year but she doesn't know their names, she knows that one doesn't like her because of her family and the other hasn't ever said anything to her. Thankfully, even after Skeeter's article about her surviving the Killing Curse, they still don't bother with her. Unfortunately, that cannot be said about the other Hufflepuffs.

Someone behind her, shoves her shoulder, this action is followed by Zacharias Smith's obnoxious voice saying "Hey, Blue, I heard you survived the Killing Curse this summer."

Aurelia rolls her eyes "I heard you still haven't learned how to mind your own business."

Zacharias snorts "It's technically my business, we're kinda like family, I mean Macleod's related to my dad —"

"Do you even know how she's related to your dad?"

"Well, er, no."

To be fair, Aurelia doesn't know how they're related either. The only reason that she knows they're related is because Zacharias has pulled this card before "And, I'm not related to you, so I don't have to tell you anything."

"Oh, come on, Blue! You have to tell me, I'm dying to know!"

"That was a terrible pun, Smith."

"I — er, sorry? . . . So are you gonna tell me or what, Blue?"

"Merlin's beard, you're relentless, do you know that, Smith?"

"Aye, I've been told a few times."

"Only a few?"

"Sod off, you cannot blame me for being curious, Blue, I'm not the only one who's gonna ask you," Zacharias says and even though Aurelia hates to admit it, she knows he's right.

Aurelia scowls and huffs "You're a right prat, you know that."

"That I do know, Blue. In fact, I pride myself on it," Zacharias says, grinning playfully as he puffs out his chest with false pride."

"Wanker," Aurelia says as she shakes her head, "I'll explain everything in the common room."  
  


* * *

* * *

**IN THE MORNING** , Neville still feels as those he's on cloud nine. Aurelia had kissed his cheek last night and as sad as it may sound, it had made his entire year. She does have soft lips, he had guessed right.

"Today's not bad . . . Outside all morning," Ron says, reading over their schedules.

Neville hasn't looked over his yet, he's still thinking about the fact Aurelia had kissed his cheek.

"Herbology with Hufflepuffs —"

Neville perks up at this, glancing over at the Hufflepuff table. Aurelia's still not up yet, at this rate, she's going to have a very late start. It's not unusual for her to sleep in on school days, she just doesn't like it when she does. Neville knows that if she's not in the Great Hall within the next five minutes, she'll be in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

Dean nudges his shoulder "Hey, I think Professor Black's coming over here."

Neville looks away from the Hufflepuff table and he straightens his posture. His mouth runs dry and his palms grown sweaty, he hopes he looks decent.

"Relax, Neville, it's your godmum, not Snape," Dean says, raising a questioning eyebrow at how pale Neville's become.

But, little does Dean know, Lyra is almost worse than Snape. And at home, she's worse than him but he was at Hogwarts, she'll keep her disgust of him to a minimum with everyone around. Neville swallows thickly and turns to face his sneering godmother. Lyra Black sneering is not a bad sign, it's just her default expression.

"Hi," Neville mumbles weakly, wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers.

Lyra's grey eyes narrow "Don't mumble, Neville."

He nods, avoiding eye contact with the intimidating woman. Lyra's wild blonde curls frame her long face, her features are sharp, her eyes are heavily-lidded, and her red painted lips are pulled into a terrifying scowl. "You better behave this year, Neville, your actions last year were severely disappointing if you're parents knew about what you did they'd be extremely disappointed you. Do not let something like that happen again. You need to start acting like a Longbottom, stop bringing shame to your family name."

"It — it won't," He stammers shamefully, flinching as he stutters and fears that Lyra will yell at him for that.

Lyra gives him a once over "It better not, Neville — did you even brush your hair today? You —"

"Heya, Plant Boy," Aurelia says loudly, pushing past Lyra in a rough manner, "Heard we got Herbology together, we should get going!"

"Ari," He says breathlessly, positively delighted that she's here. Just in time to save him from Lyra's rant too. "Goo — Good morning, Ari, you're right, w — we do."

Lyra mutters something that he doesn't catch but Aurelia does.

"Call me that again an' I will naw your bloody arm off," Aurelia snarls at her.

Lyra doesn't give Aurelia a detention for that threat. Aurelia could literally naw her arm off and still Lyra wouldn't give out a detention because that would mean spending more time than necessary with Aurelia and that's the last thing Lyra wants. Lyra scowls at Aurelia before stalking away.

Aurelia holds out a shaking hand for Neville to take "C'mon on, Plant Boy, we should get to class! I'm sure Professor Sprout's missed her prized student."

"Oh, hush, Sunflower Girl," Neville says, blushing deeply.

"I only speak the truth, Plant Boy," Aurelia laughs, linking arms with Neville who is red as a tomato.

"You're too kind," Neville says sheepishly, using his free arm to rub the back of his neck.

"You're even kinder," Aurelia retorts, "And since you're so kind, how do you fancy taking me to the kitchens for lunch for some cheesecake?"

"I would — I'd fancy that quite a lot," Neville says, smiling wide.  
  


* * *

* * *

**BESIDES ALMOST THROWING** up in Herbology class because of those bloody Bobotubers which had been nasty, the first day of class had passed without major incident Even Muggles Studies which is taught by Lyra had gone smoothly; Lyra's surprisingly a good teacher, she leaves Aurelia and Neville alone during class unlike Snape.

Aurelia's pretty pleased with how the day had tuned out considering how it started and with the fact she had been up almost all night, telling nearly all the Hufflepuffs what had happened at the Quidditch World Cup and then proceeding to have nightmares about it afterwards. She had spent lunch alone with Neville, away from prying eyes of various students who wanted to ask what really happened at the World Cup. It was nice, it was like a date, a friend date, and all they, well all she, ate was cheesecake. All in all, it should've been the perfect ideal day for her. But then something, or rather someone, just had to go and ruin it.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley," Her brother's loud voice echoes around the Entrance Hall. Aurelia and Neville share exasperated looks, he couldn't wait until after dinner to make a scene?

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley! Listen to this" Draco says and then starts to read from an article loudly so that everyone can hear.

Aurelia pushes her way through the crowd to get to Draco and scold him for being a little shit.

"And there's a picture," Draco exclaims, "A picture of your parents outside their house — if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," Harry snaps.

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter? So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

Aurelia pushes past a Ravenclaw, finally reaching her brother.

"You know your mother, Malfoy? That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter," Draco snarls.

"You hypocrite, Draco!" Aurelia says, "But, please, Harold, keep my mother out of this, she's got enough to deal with being our mother, imagine having to put up with Draco during the summer! She doesn't need to be insulted like that."

Aurelia starts stomping up to her brother but Crabbe steps in her way before she can reach him.

"Why are you defending her, it's not like it's a personal insult to you, Blood-Traitor," Milicent Bulstrode says with a sneer and she peers at Aurelia from behind Crabbe's large frame, "You don't look anything like her . . . It's like you're not even a Malfoy."

"Technically, I'm not a Malfoy, Bulstrode," Aurelia snaps, "I disowned myself and then they offically disowned me, so nice try. That one doesn't make me cry anymore, bitch."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," Harry tells Draco, turning away.

Draco pulls out his wand despite the fact that Harry can't see him doing so.

"Draco, no," Aurelia exclaims trying to push past Crabbe but he pushes her back.

"That's not fair, Draco, seriously," Aurelia calls out to her brother as she stumbles backwards into a Ravenclaw.

He shouts a spell at Harry — **_BANG_**! Aurelia gasps in horror, snapping her head to look at Harry, the spell misses him. **_BANG_**!

"Oh, no you don't, laddie," Professor Moody yells.

A stunned silence falls over the hall and the squeaking chatter of a ferret can be heard. Slowly, Aurelia turns her head to look at her brother as Professor Moody clambers over to him.

"Merlin's beard," Aurelia breathes, eyes widening in shock because Professor Moody's turned her brother into a fucking ferret.

Professor Moody asks Harry if he's alright and Aurelia as well as Crabbe move it grab Draco.

"LEAVE IT," Moody roars.

Crabbe freezes but Aurelia continues to reach for her brother\ferret.

"I don't think so," Moody growls as limps forward, shoving Aurelia aside he points his wand at Draco.

"Hey, leave him alone," Aurelia snarls, her brother doesn't deserve this kind of punishment.

Moody ignores her, growling: "I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned! Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do," he uses his wand to make the ferret bounce up and down, Draco squeals in pain.

"There's no reason to do that! St — stop! You're hurting him!" Aurelia screams, slamming her fists against Moody's back, "What the fuck, what are you doing, you psycho?!"

The ferret hits the stone floor repeatedly, squealing louder and louder with each impact. Tears burn, Aurelia's eyes, her brother's in pain "STOP!"

"If you don't stop what you're doing, Miss. Malfoy, you will be next," Moody snaps, not taking his eyes off of Draco who is still forcibly bouncing about.

She draws her wand as her brother lets out another pained squeal but she doesn't need to retaliate because Professor McGonagall has entered the building.

"Professor Moody," Professor McGonagall says in a shocked voice and Aurelia's flooded with relief.

"Professor! He's turned Draco into a ferret," Aurelia exclaims, "He's turned my brother into a fucking ferret!"

"And he threatened her," Pansy points out, the girl beside her, Abigale Montgomery, nods feverently in agreement.

McGonagall's eyes widen in alarm, books falling from her arms as she pulls out her wand and changes Draco back "Moody, we never use or threaten Transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that," Professor McGonagall says weakly.

"Draco, are you alright," Aurelia asks softly, rushing to his side but he shoves her away and Aurelia frowns at this.

He sneers at her, Pansy strikes him in the ribs, muttering: "She's just trying to be nice, Draco."

"I'm fine," He says shortly while shooting Pansy a dirty look but she merely shrugs at him.

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House," Professor McGonagall scolds.

"I'll do that, then," Moody says, staring at Draco with great dislike.

"You should be fired," Aurelia hisses, "He didn't deserve to be punished like that!"

Moody stares at her with almost murderous intent but he's distracted by Draco who mutters:

"My father will hear about this."

_Ah, there it is, true Draco fashion at its finest_. Aurelia rolls her eyes, realising that his ego's more wounded than he is, she turns on her heel and heads back to Neville's side, muttering to herself: "That was bullshit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aurelia and Olivia have matching Cryptid shirts, Aurelia's is 'Mothman Loves You' and Olivia's is "Bigfoot Cares' and they are cute as heck and I'm definitely making the Mothman one eventually when I can get a decent design for it lmaooo also this chapter hints at what Neville's future patronus is. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 5,825


	13. One Way Ticket To Azkaban

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black has a great right hook . . . 

****

**CHAPTER ELEVEN** :

 **011 ||** One Way Ticket To Azkaban

* * *

**MOST** , **IF NOT** all of her friends, are excited for Professor Moody's lesson, however Aurelia's anything but. After what he had done to her brother, they way he had looked like he wanted to murder her for defending her brother who was in pain, terrified her. She'd do anything to skip his lesson. Since her friends, for whatever reasons, are so excited for Professor Moody's lesson, she keeps her disdain about it to herself but Neville, of course, can see that she's unnerved about something.

"Are you alright, Ari," Neville asks as Aurelia and Hermione try to teach him a Scouring Charm.

Aurelia nods "I'm fine, why?"

"You don't look fine, you look nervous."

"I'm not nervous," Aurelia replies shortly, "Besides, shouldn't I be the one asking if your alright, I'm not the one who had to dismember a barrel of toads the previous night."

"I — I'm fine," He stammers, he's still shaken up about it. And he most certainly isn't fine. Which makes Aurelia very angry, she's determined to make Professor Snape's life hell for the next month.

"You know why Snape's been in a foul mood, don't you," Ron mumbles to Harry who nods.

"Moody," Harry says, which is probably true. Moody likes to go after shady people whether he's on the job or not, and Snape is a shady dude.

Still, Aurelia thinks, it doesn't give him a right to take it out on literal children.

"Nah, it's 'cause he's a foul git," Aurelia replies, "Moody should turn him into a ferret, he's the one who bloody well deserves it."

Harry and Ron snicker at the thought and Harry says thoughtfully: "I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know."

"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad." Ron says gleefully, "And bounced him all around his dungeon. . ."

"I'd give the entire Malfoy and Black family vaults to see that and it'd be worth it." Aurelia sighs blissfully, "But then who would deal with Moody because he deserves it to after what he did to my brother. Don't give me that look, Ron!"

"Malfoy deserved what he got," Ron still insists.

"Not that, absolutely not," Aurelia disagrees, "I would've placed Draco under the dancing jinx and then given him a month's worth of detention. What Moody did was fucking foul, he could've kill my brother bouncin' him around like in such a small form."

Ron and Harry give her annoyed looks and she scowls at them, they don't get it and Aurelia guesses she gets it because her brother is terrible to them so she lets it go. Out of everyone, she guesses she can let those two continue to think what Moody did was funny and Hermione, but she doesn't seem to find it as funny as they do.

Aurelia looks back at Neville who looks a lot happier now that his fingernails had been cleaned, a surge of anger courses through her veins as she thought of what it must've been like for him to have spent hours upon hours of disembowelling toads. Fuck, Professor Snape, he's a little asshole.

"Are you sure you're alright," Neville asks again, seeing the troubled look on Aurelia's face.

"Something about Professor Moody scares me, I know Fred and them said he was amazing but something about Moody ain't right," She rambles nervously.

Neville grabs her hand, squeezing it reassuringly as he tells her: "Don't wor — worry, Ari, besides he can't be as bad as Lockhart."

"You're right, you're right," She sighs, smiling nervously, "Nothing could be as bad as that."

Feeling slightly better about the lesson, her and Neville head up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Harry and Ron follow behind them. Along the way, Ron and Harry eagerly discuss what the lesson might be about. Their theories do nothing to sooth her nerves, so she keeps a tight hold on Neville's hand in hopes of keeping herself grounded. That also does little to help her. When they arrive, Neville and Aurelia sit down at a table next to Olivia and Hannah, it's not long until they hear Professor Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor. He enters the room, looking as frightening as ever.

"You can put those away," He growls as he stamps over to his desk and sits down, "Those books. You won't need them."

Putting her book away, Aurelia doesn't know whether to feel more nervous or feel slightly giddy. When Professor Lupin had told the class they wouldn't need their books it had usually followed by something exciting. Professor Moody takes out a register and starts calling out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list whilst his magical eye swivels around, fixing upon students as they answer.

"L — Malfoy, Asterope," He calls out her name, there's a tone of malice that's different from his normal tone of voice.

"Here," Aurelia replies meekly, her stomach twists with nerves as he glares at her a moment longer then he continues on with the list, she wants out of this class already. This not going to be a good lesson she can tell. Her palms start to sweat and her heart starts to race, he's nothing like Nym had described.

"Right then," He says, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark Creatures — you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas, and Werewolves, is that right?"

There's a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses. So, I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark —"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurts out.

Moody's magical eye spins around to stare at Ron and then, surprisingly, Moody smiles. A smile which makes his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever. A smile which unnerves Aurelia "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh," Moody questions, "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago . . . Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

 _Oh, thank fucking Merlin_!

He gives a harsh laugh, then claps his gnarled hands together "So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss. Brown, when I'm talking."

From behind her Aurelia hears a chair scraping against the floor and she assumes it's Lavender Brown who's probably trying to act like she hasn't done anything wrong.

"So . . . Do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

 _Well, shit_ , Aurelia thinks, _this can't be good_!

Several hands rise tentatively into the air. Professor Moody points at Ron, although his magical eye stays fixed on Lavender.

"Er — my dad told me about one . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," Professor Moody says appreciatively, "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse," Professor Moody gets up on his feet, opened his desk drawer, and takes out a glass jar. Three large black spiders are scuttling around inside it. He reaches into the jar, catches one of the spiders, and holds it in the palm of his hand so that class can see it. He then points his wand at it and mutters, "Imperio!"

The spider leaps from Professor Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and begins to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretches out its legs rigidly, then does a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it begins to cartwheel in circles. Professor Moody jerks his wand, and the spider rises onto two of its hind legs and went into what's unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone starts laughing, Aurelia doesn't, she can't bring herself too. She supposes it might be a funny sight to see but she knows that the Imperious Curse isn't funny, she had been placed under it many times when she was in the care of her parents. Her father used it to keep her in line but she had eventually built up an immunity to his Imperious Curse and had become practically useless to him.

"Think it's funny, do you," He growls, "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter dies away almost instantly.

"Total control," He says quietly as the spider balls itself up and begins to roll over and over, "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats."

Aurelia feels sick, _what the fuck was wrong with him_?!

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," Professor Moody explains, "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Everyone jumps and Aurelia even falls out of her chair, it goes unnoticed by everyone as they're so absorbed in the lesson. She quickly climbs back onto the chair before anyone does. Moody picks up the somersaulting spider and throws it back into the jar "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flies into the air again and so does Neville's.

 _Oh no_ , Aurelia thinks, _oh no, oh fuck_.

Neville even looks surprised at his own daring. Aurelia can feel her heart racing, her stomach is twisting so violently she think she might throw up. She should have just walked out of that class the second Professor Moody had mentioned the Unforgivable Curses.

The professor's magical eye rolls over to fix on Neville "Yes?"

Olivia glances over at Aurelia, a look of concern on her face. Aurelia's visibly shaking and paler than usual. Hannah, who's sitting with Olivia seems to notice Aurelia's odd behavior as well as Neville's.

"There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," Neville says in a small voice.

Professor Moody looks at him, intently with both eyes "Your name's Longbottom?"

Neville nods nervously, and the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor turns his back to the class as he reaches into the jar, pulling out another spider.

"The Cruciatus Curse . . ." Professor Moody begins, ". . . Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea . . . Engorgio!"

At this point Aurelia has dug her nails so deeply into her palms, that they're starting to bleed, she squeezes her eyes shut as the Professor raises his wand once again.

"Crucio," Professor Moody mutters.

Her father standing over her, a look of horror on his face as his eyes dart between his wand and her crumbled body.

Aunt Bellatrix pointing her crooked wand at Joseph MacDonald, while snarling: " _How dare you threaten her! CRUCIO —_ "

Goyle laughing maniacally as she points her wand at Aurelia screaming " _Cru — CIO_!"

It's all there, right in front of her eyes.

She can almost feel the pain of the Curse burning through her body. _MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP_! Aurelia's body's shaking badly, and there are tears pricking the corner of her eyes. The Death-Eater's right in front of her — _so close, too close_. Aurelia's going to die. Goyle's going to kill her.

"No, no, no, no, no," Aurelia mutters, this can't be real. Goyle can't be here. I can't be there.

 _You're at Hogwarts_ , Aurelia closes her eyes and grips the edge of her desk tightly, you are at Hogwarts. She feels eyes burning into the top of her skull. When she looks up, Goyle's still there but she seems to be closer now. _No, no, no, no_.

" _Do you actually think that someone's going to help you, Wolfie_?" Goyle croons.

Aurelia lets out a strangled cry of: "No!"

" _Pathetic_ — Ari, are you — _but, I do love it when_ — alright? — _they put up a_ — Ari, what's wrong? — _fight_!"

Aurelia feels someone — _Goyle! Or maybe Rowle! She's going to kill me! They're going to kill me_! — grab her arm but she yanks it back and then punches in the general direction of where they should be. There's no shrill shriek likes she expects but a collective gasp and a boy muttering: "Bloody hell!"

"Neville, are you alright," Seamus' Irish accent cuts through her panicked thoughts.

 _Neville? What happened to Neville, did she — did they — No_. Goyle's gone, Aurelia realises and she was probably never there, what the fuck is wrong with her?

Aurelia blinks, _you are at Hogwarts. You are safe. You just had one of those again. Stupid girl_ , she scolds herself, how could she possibly think that Goyle had been there. Aurelia looks at Neville, who's holding the side of his face — _Holy shit, I punched him! Oh, Merlin! What have I done_?!

He looks horrified — _Of her? Of the lesson_? Aurelia's not sure which but she feels terribly guilty. She opens her mouth to apolgise but no sound comes out, her mind is still reeling from what she had went through. What's wrong with her? Besides possibly having Hyperthymesia, the Muggle doctor had never found anything wrong with her when she had visited. Then again, her twelve-year-old self hadn't been very forthcoming about her troubles, because at the root of them all lies the terrible fact she had been attacked by a werewolf, and werewolves aren't real according to Muggles.

"— Yes, the last and the worst. Avada Kedavra . . . The Killing Curse."

A chill runs down Aurelia's spine as she recalls the bright green light that had almost killed her.

Professor Moody pulls out the third spider and Aurelia wants to scream at him to stop but she finds herself frozen in her spot, unable to get the protest out. He raises his wand "Avada Kedavra!"

The blinding green light seems to snap Aurelia out of her dazed state. The spider dies instantaneously and a sob forces its way out of her throat, hot tears slide down her cheeks. That had almost been her. She could imagine her body lying there, dead as can be, if she tried hard enough but she doesn't want to so she forces herself to look away.

"Not nice, not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only two known people have ever survived it, and they're sitting right in front of me," Moody says calmly, referring to Harry and Aurelia, although both his eyes are locked on Harry. She hadn't really survived the Killing Curse, that had just been a rumour.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it. You could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it," Moody explains.

Aurelia shudders, glancing at Neville. He still looks horrified as he watches Professor Moody drone on about the Unforgivable Curses, the one side of his face is really red. She did that. She hurt him. _You horrible, stupid girl_! She scolds herself, _you_ —

"— CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Aurelia jumps in her seat, letting out a frightened gasp.

"Now . . . These three curses — Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus — are known as the Unforgivable Curses. Any use of them will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban," Professor Moody growls, giving Aurelia a pointed look.

 _Go choke on a dick_ , Aurelia thinks, glaring at him.

"That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills . . . Copy this down. . . ."

For the rest of the lesson, no one speaks. Once they're dismissed, Neville and Aurelia scurry out the classroom like mice running from a hungry cat. Aurelia apologises profusely to Neville as they hurry down the corridor but Neville doesn't say anything. They come to an halt in a passage way just off to the side of the classroom. It's not far enough from Moody, by Aurelia's standards, but it'll do for now.

"Neville, I — I'm sorry. I did — didn't mean to hit you, I —" She cuts herself off, does she tell him what really happened despite the probability of him thinking she's crazy. Neville stares at the wall in front of them with a horrified, wide-eyed look. She realises, at this moment, he probably doesn't care that she hit him, he had just witnessed the same dark curse that had taken his parents away from him, he must be traumatised.

"Nev, are you alright," Aurelia asks gently, "Maybe, we can go to the greenhouses, that might help take your mind off things."

Neville looks at Aurelia but he doesn't look at her, his eyes are still focused on something far away, brimming with tears. She wonders if he remembers the night his parents had been attacked — _was he even there_? Is he having one of those things that she gets. Gently and slowly, she takes his hand into her and traces patterns on his surprising smooth palm.

"Neville, Blue," Hermione asks gently as she approaches them, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be," Aurelia asks defensively, now they must think something's really wrong with her.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stare at her skeptically.

"Neville," Hermione asks again.

Neville blinks as he looks at his three friends "Oh, hello," he says in an unnaturally high voice, "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm — I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you alright?"

"Oh, yes! I'm fine," Neville says squeezing Aurelia's hand as he looks around at them, "Very interesting dinner — I mean, lesson — what's for dinner?"

"Neville, what —"

Hermione's question gets cut off by Professor Moody who approaches the group. He places a hand on Neville's shoulder and speaks in a surprisingly soft growl: "It's alright, sonny."

He looks at Neville than at Aurelia "Why don't you two come up to my office? . . . We can have a cup of tea."

Neville looks even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody, he neither moves nor speaks.

"We can't, Nev and I — no," Aurelia exclaims, stammering nervously, she'd rather have tea with her Grandmother Druella — who had put poison in Aurelia's tea on more than one occasion, might she add — than with Professor Moody.

But, Professor Moody ignores her as he turns his magical eye on Harry "You alright, are you, Potter?"

"Yes," Harry replies quickly.

"You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending . . . Well . . . Come on, Longbottom, Malfoy I've got some books that might interest you."

Both, Aurelia and Neville look to the trio of Gryffindors for help but they say nothing and they have no choice but to follow Professor Moody up to his office. Professor Moody invites them into his office, he starts the tea right away and Aurelia prays this visit will be quick. Aurelia and Neville are squeezing their hands so tightly, they've both gone slightly numb. They refuse to let go of each other, feeling too uneasy about being in the professor's company, they're the only comfort they have.

Professor Moody's magical eye locks onto their intertwined hands and an unnerving smile stretches across his scarred face "Good friends, huh? Sprout's told me all about you two, thick as thieves, she says," He says gruffly.

Neville becomes slightly less tense as he slowly nods his head "We're best friends."

Professor Moody changes the subject "I knew your parents." he states, smile growing slightly wide before turning into a frown, "Shame what happened to them, they were exceptional Aurors, I would know as I taught them everything they knew — and here you are befriending the niece of the woman who tortured your parents."

"Would they have cared," Neville asks.

Aurelia grows tense, this answer can literally destroy their friendship, she steals a quick glance at Neville, the expression isn't one of curiosity like she expects but rather one of defiance. A rare look for Neville Longbottom.

Aurelia remembers what Alice had said in St. Mungo's how her aunt had used her to gain their trust and while Mae had denied that, Aurelia wonders if it's true and if so would Moody know. Oh, Merlin, what if he knows and this how not only Neville finds out but she finds out too. And —

Professor Moody lets out short, harsh laugh "We'll never know their real answer to that, sonny, but your parents were rebels, especially your mother, my answer's that: if anything they'd encourage your forbidden friendship here."

 _Well, that's certainly a plot twist_. Still, Aurelia remains on edge, something about Moody doesn't feel right.

Neville grips her hand tightly.

Professor Moody places cups of tea in front of the two of them, Aurelia doesn't dare touch hers. Her stomach feels sick, she's not sure she likes where this conversation is going.

"Ari's my best friend, my mum likes her. She sat by her bed the whole time she was at St. Mungo's." Neville says, smiling at Aurelia.

"Your mother liked her aunt too," Professor Mood says bluntly.

Neville chokes on his tea "What do you mean by _liked_?"

Aurelia's eyes widen in alarm, she never knew this. Mae didn't say anything about them being friends, what the fuck, they were friends?! How could somebody betray a friend like that, Aurelia couldn't comprehend it. And if Bellatrix was uncaring enough to betray them than means she would uncaring enough to use her own infant niece against them and this is where Aurelia finds out that she's all to blame for what happened to the Longbottoms, she inhales sharply.

"Your father did too, they thought Bellatrix could be trusted. They were friends as well, when they were younger, the three of them had been the best of friends. Look what happened to them. They were best friends like you and Malfoy are. You should watch your back, Longbottom," Professor Moody says harshly.

"Why would I need to watch my back," Neville asks, "Lestrange's in Azkaban."

 _Oh, you sweet, innocent child_. Aurelia knows what's coming next but Neville's got no idea. _Sweet Neville_. Aurelia thinks, _he's too kind for someone like me_.

"Your parents didn't watch their backs with Bellatrix and she stabbed them. In all due time, Malfoy'll do the same to you."

A cold chill runs through her body but she's never felt so angry with a teacher before. She'd never hurt Neville. Never.

"No, she — she won't. Ari's my best friend. I trust her with my life," Neville says defensively but he's shaking nervously in his seat.

"I wouldn't make that mistake if I were you, you wouldn't want to end up like your parents. Malfoy'll stab you in the back when you least expect it, just like her —"

Aurelia shoots out of the chair, her hair and face red with anger, there's a fiery feeling she's never felt before coursing through her veins. There are so many things she'd like to say to Moody but her brain can't seem to string a coherent sentence together, she's so angry.

So, Aurelia screams loudly, slamming her fist on his desk and spilling her hot, untouched tea all on her shoes which only makes her scream louder because it burns.

"FUCK YOU!"

And she stomps out of his office, knocking things over for good measure as she takes her leave. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Foreshadowing in this chapter is *chef's kiss*,,, Moody's a little bitch but are we really that surprised???? Also his character is so hard to write and I don't think I did it justice, I tried to let Barty Jr. slide through a bit since he's alone with Aurelia and Neville, kids he knows no one will take seriously if they say anything about him acting off. But I also didn't want it to be too Barty so it kinda turned into a mess. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 4,227


	14. All Knowing Abigale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which neville longbottom has some competition . . .

****

**CHAPTER TWELVE** :

 **012 ||** All Knowing Abigale

* * *

" **SO WHY ARE** avoiding, Neville," Hannah asks, one lunch a couple weeks after the whole Moody thing.

Aurelia straightens out her tie, mumbling: "I'm not avoiding him, I just talked to him yesterday."

"Yeah, in class! And it was so awkward," Hannah exclaims, "Watching the two of you interact yesterday made me want to gouge my eyes out!"

"You're just being dramatic now, Han," Aurelia says rolling her eyes.

"Says you," Hannah huffs.

"Han's right. You're clearly avoiding, Longbottom. Why," Olivia cuts in.

"I'm not!"

"Yeah, and I'm not totally head over heels for Ginny Weasley," Olivia laughs, unlike Aurelia, Olivia's extremely openly bisexual and very proud of it.

"But, you are," Mari says, completely oblivious to what Olivia actually meant by the remark.

Hannah smiles softly, placing her hand on Mari's arm as she informs her that: "Liv's just being sarcastic, hun."

"Oh."

"Has this got anything to do with you punching him," Hannah questions, turning her attention back to Aurelia.

"Kinda," Aurelia mutters.

"Why don't you just apologise?"

"I did."

"Then why are you avoiding him?"

"Because I don't deserve a friend like him! I'm evil! I'm destined to be evil," Aurelia mutters, shamefully.

There's a moment of a silence and for a minute, Aurelia thinks Hannah might actually agree with her but then the blonde shakes her head "That's not true, Blue. You and Neville do deserve each other," Hannah says, frowning.

"Yeah, Han's right," Olivia says, biting into her muffin, "Longbottom's like the Princess Leia to your Han Solo!"

Hannah blinks, looking mildly confused as she asks: "Shouldn't that be the other way around?"

"If anything, Neville's the Luke Skywalker to my Han Solo." Aurelia corrects, "Because Han and Luke are best buddies too and I am without a doubt Han Solo and as lovely as Neville is, he definitely is not Princess Leia."

Olivia nods thoughtfully "Yeah, Longbottom's definitely more of a Luke Skywalker now that you mention it."

"I think we're getting off-topic here," Mari says, "What made you think that? Did Neville say something . . . Does he —"

"Moody. He said that I was gonna end up just like my aunt, evil and insane. He said I would hurt Neville one day because I was just like her," Aurelia replies glumly.

"Oh! That explains the hair!" Mari exclaims, casting an exasperated glance at Aurelia's raven-coloured curls. It's a colour that Mari thinks doesn't suit her at all; usually Aurelia keeps her hair anything but that colour.

"Yeah, I figured that I might as well get a head start on my slow descent into madness." Aurelia sighs, earning groans from the three girls.

"You melodramatic bitch," Olivia sighs annoyed.

"Rude! I haven't even done anything," Cedric gasps as he sits down next to Hannah.

Olivia rolls her eyes "I wasn't talking about you, you big ol' rat!"

"First of all, that's big ol' rat king, to you! Pipsqueak! Secondly, who are we talking about then," Cedric says, leaning closer to the girls.

"It's just, Aurelia," Olivia replies, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, so nothing unusual's happened then?"

"Hey," Aurelia gasps, looking at Cedric with false offense.

"You wouldn't have to sit through our bullying if you had just sat with Neville," Hannah sings, a teasing smile adorning her freckled face.

Cedric's eyes widen "So something did happen! Why aren't you sitting with Neville?"

"Well, I punched him —"

"What?!"

"She apologised for that! Honestly, Blue, don't leave out the important details!"

"— And then Moody said that I was going to be just like my aunt. Just as crazy and evil as she is — was? Oh, bloody hell, I don't know. But, he's right!"

"Merlin's beard, I had such high hopes for Moody. I quite enjoyed his teaching methods but — well, he had no right to compare you to your aunt. Or any of your family. You're working very hard not to be like them and no one pays attentions to your efforts. Don't listen to, Moody! He doesn't know know you, Blue, but do you know who does?"

"Who," Aurelia asks, still frowning despite Cedric's positive words.

Cedric grins widely before yelling out: "Hey! Neville come over here, will you?!"

Neville looks mortified by the fact that Cedric bloody Diggory had called him over. A lot of the students are now looking at him because of it.

Aurelia slaps Cedric's arm "What are you doing?! You rat!"

"Rat king."

Her eyes narrow, her face growing red with embarrassment as she slaps Cedric's arm multiple times "What would you do that for, you wee bitch!"

Neville scrambles over to the Hufflepuffs, almost tripping on his own two feet as he does so.

Cedric grins at Neville "Good afternoon, Neville! Hey, I was wondering what class do you have next?"

Neville looks equally confused and nervous as he stammers: "D — D — DA — DADA."

Cedric's grin widens "Well, would you look at that! So does, Blue! You two should walk to class together!"

"I will kill you in your sleep for this, Diggs," Aurelia whispers in Cedric's ear.

"Threatens the girl who once got upset and apologised to a leaf because it crunched too loudly when you stepped on it," Cedric teases.

"Unlike you, Diggs, the leaf was innocent," Aurelia hisses under her breath as she begins gathering her things.

Neville looks between Aurelia and Cedric nervously. He doesn't think Aurelia'll want to walk with him, he's pretty certain that she's upset with for not defending her more to Moody. They haven't had a decent conversation since then and he's very nervous. Neville's scared that their friendship is over, he doesn't want to lose Aurelia as a friend. She's his best friend without a doubt. "I — I —"

Aurelia stands up, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder "C'mon, Plant Boy, let's go before I commit homicide," She shoots Cedric one last dirty look before she grabs Neville's hand.

"What," Neville blinks, looking between the two Hufflepuffs.

"She says she's going to commit homie-cide," Olivia says, "Get it —"

"Finish that sentence, Liv, and it will be a double murder," Aurelia says, Olivia just laughs and with the Aurelia drags Neville out of the Great Hall.

Neville glances at her, as he thinks of something to say, there are bags under her heavily-lidded, wide eyes and she looks sickly pale. He doesn't think she's brushed her hair this morning as it's curlier than usual and it's a very unusual black colour

"I'm sorry," Neville whispers nervously as they climb the stairs, Aurelia glances at him and raises an eyebrow.

"Why are you apologising," Aurelia asks, confused.

"I didn't stand up for you," He replies.

"Yes, you did."

"Not well e — enough," Neville stammers, "What kind of friend am I if — if I —"

"You're a wonderful friend!"

Neville shakes his head "No, I sh — should've said more, I should have —"

"The fact that you said something means a lot to me. You didn't have to say anything at all but you did and I can never thank you enough for that." Aurelia tells him, smiling softly.

"Oh . . . Well, I — I thought you we — were upset wit — with me because I did — didn't say enough," Neville stammers tearfully, "I thought you — you might not want to be friend any — anymore."

"Merlin, I punch you in the face and you worry that I won't want to be your friend anymore?"

"You did — didn't mean to and besides it didn't hurt that bad — okay, it hurt a lot. You have a great right hook," Neville says quickly.

"I'm sorry."

"You've already apologised . . . So, are we alright then? I mean, we're friends right? And — and we'll always be friends forever, won't we? No matter what anyone says or does, we'll stick by each other's sides through it all, right," He asks, looking up at her hopefully.

Aurelia smiles brightly, holding out her pinky "I promise."

Neville blinks as he quickly tries to think of what he's supposed to do. He's seen Ellie and Aurelia do this before. He's supposed to wrap his pinky around her's — yeah, that sounds about right. He wraps his pinky around her own and she gives it a little shake, her bright smile going wide. "I promise too," Neville says.

"Well, we should probably get to class," Aurelia suggests after a moment of comfortable silence, Neville nods in agreement.   
  


* * *

* * *

  
" **WE SHOULD PROBABLY** skip this class," Aurelia whispers to Neville when Professor Moody announces he's going to teach them the Imperius Curse and its effects. Which, isn't as surprising as it should've been. Aurelia's rather certain she's going to do well on this one, she's got experience with this curse. Technically speaking, she's got experience with all the Unforgivables; but's she's got the most experience with this one. Her dad put her under it a lot at social gatherings and for the longest time she had assumed it was her conscience speaking to her and she listened to it. Well, until it had told her not to touch the cookies and then she told it to 'sod off' because she really wanted those cookies. After that she started resisting it until she built up a decent immunity to it, specifically her father's Imperius.

She's not exactly sure she'll be able to completely resist someone else's Imperius, but Aurelia's still very angry with Moody so she's hoping she can, just to prove that she's mentally stronger than the rest of her family. She knows what she wants, she's got her mind set on being a good person and no one, not even an Unforgivable will change her bloody mind.

"But — but you said it's illegal, Professor. You said — to use it against another human was —" Hermione says uncertainly as Moody clears away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room.

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like, if you'd rather learn the hard way — when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely — fine by me. You're excused. Off you go," Moody growls, staring eerily at Hermione.

He points at the door and Hermione turns red with embarrassment.

"No offense but, I don't think she meant it like that! Sure, Dumbledore's got a track record picking horrible teachers — minus Lupin, he was an angel — but we've never actually been told to do anything illegal! So bloody forgive us for questioning any law-breaking taking place in the classroom," Aurelia snaps, defending Hermione.

Moody surveys her for a moment with an almost smug look on his face "Why don't you go first, Malfoy? I'm sure you've had plenty of experience with the Unforgivable Curses considering your family background."

She grits her teeth. To be fair, she brought that one on herself. Aurelia thinks she could just tell him to go fuck himself and leave the classroom but she'd much rather see that smug grin wiped off his face when she resists the curse perfectly. "Fine!" She agree snappily, stepping forward. _Okay, brain_! She thinks, _please don't fail me now_.

Moody waves his wand, growling out: "Imperio!"

A sudden wave of calmness and happiness washes over her, all her worries seem to melt away. Before she lets herself get lured into this feeling of security she tells herself she shouldn't be feeling this way. She reminds herself of where she is and how she's with Mad-Eye Moody who's kind of an ass to her. _You shouldn't feel this calm around him_ , Aurelia tells herself.

Seconds later she hears Moody's voice echo in her mind: _tell the truth_.

She thinks of her scars and the secret she's hid from her friends, she should — _no_. _You don't want to tell the truth, not now. You don't want to_.

_It must be really difficult hiding who you really are_ , Moody says.

_They're just scars_ , she tells the voice, _it ain't that deep_.

_Tell them_! He insists.

_I think I'll pass_.

Moody lowers his wand, releasing her from the curse.

"Well done, Black, you fought it well." He tells her, giving her a curt nod of approval.

Aurelia glares at him before turning on her heel to head to the back of the class. Out of all the stupid things he could've made her do, he tried to get her to do that. She dugs her nails into the palms of her hands as she fumed silently. Coming to a stop by Neville's side, he stares at her amazed.

"Wow, Ari! You completely resisted, that's amazing! How did you do it," He gushes.

"I'll tell you later," She replies quietly, frowning.

He nods and turns his attention to Dean, who under the Imperius Curse, jumps around the room, singing some weird song. The lesson continues with various students doing weird or embarrassing things that they would never have attempted with control of their actions. Harry, of course, because he's Harry bloody Potter is the only other person who resists the curse, though not as well as she had. Yet, for some reason he's gets more praise than she did. She bitterly scoffs at that, _Saint Potter — Merlin, you sound like Draco_!

Nym had told Moody could be an arse at times but when she said that, Aurelia had never realised she meant that much of an arse. By the end of the lesson, Aurelia's so enraged it's a surprise that steam isn't coming out of her ears.

"That bastard," Aurelia hisses heatedly to Neville, who is very confused. The pair stalk down the corridor, Aurelia in the lead as Neville struggles to keep up with her long strides.

"Is it about the remark he made about your family?" Neville asks.

"No! It's not fair," Aurelia exclaims, "He makes all the others do embarrassing things but me — ME! He tries to make me —"

"What? What did he try to do?"

Her face twists in anger as she shakes her head "I don't want to talk about it."

Aurelia knows that she'll have to tell him soon, she'll have to tell all her friends soon. She's running out of that make-up that's covers her scars and her Metamorphmagus abilities are not that reliable but she can't bring herself to tell him or anyone now. But, this time it's not fear that keeps the truth from spilling from her mouth but rather anger. She's so angry that she's surprised that she's able to form coherent sentences.

Neville looks at her concerned but he doesn't press the subject, he decides to change it instead, asking: "How were you able to resist the curse so well, you said you'd tell me later."

Aurelia bites her lip "Well, my dad . . . To keep me in line at parties, he'd put me under the curse . . . One time he wouldn't let have a cookie and I decided 'fuck that, I want a cookie' and I resisted the curse and got my bloody cookie. I started resisting it more after that but the first time I ever resisted the Imperius Curse was because of a cookie."

Neville stares at her aghast.

"I know it's illegal but could you maybe not . . . Not, well, tell anyone?"

"I won't tell anyone, I promise . . . But, I think he should be in prison for that."

"I s'pose you're right," Aurelia laughs.

"I always am," The teasing remark slips past his lips before he can really think them through. Neville almost regrets it but then Aurelia's nervous expression turns to an amused one and he knows he's done well.

"I s'pose you always are, Plant Boy," Aurelia laughs, smiling wide.  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE DAY BEFORE** Halloween brings Aurelia a new sort of excited feeling. Today's the day that the other school's will be arriving for the tournament. Aurelia's practically buzzing with excitement as she goes through the day. New people, new friends! She also can't help but wonder if Noelle will be attending along with the other Durmstrang students. She had said that's where she went and she did look to be of age. Aurelia really hopes she will be. She had only shared but a short conversation with the German girl but Aurelia can't seem to forget her. She's on Aurelia's mind as much as Neville is.

Speaking of Neville, he seems to be the only thing dampening her mood but by no fault of his own, Aurelia's just kind of jealous. She's never realised how easily jealous she gets until today, she really shouldn't be jealous considering she fancies to other people besides Neville. Hannah likes Neville, Aurelia had realised this at breakfast, and Neville likes Hannah. And so, Aurelia despite being positively delighted about the new arrivals can't stop this wee tidbit of information from dampening her mood.

Aurelia's been all smiles and bouncing around all day except for when that would cross her mind. Then her bright smile would falter and the spring in her step would turn into a trudge; Neville's been noticing this pattern all day. As they wait for the two schools to arrive, Neville finally asks: "What's wrong?"

"Huh? What? Nothing's wrong," Aurelia replies quickly as she tears her gaze away from the sky, "What're you asking for?"

"You're frowning," He says.

"Oh."

_Well, shit! I ain't about to tell him that I've possibly got a big, huge crush on him! That's totally out of the question — well, fuck_!

"Oh, well . . . You see I . . . I met a girl at the Quidditch World Cup and . . ."

_Are you actually going to come out to him instead of telling him you've possibly got feelings for him?! Ha, you bet I am_! Aurelia's never really come out before, she's never exactly hid it as she would fawn over pretty girls without a hint of regret but she's never told anyone that she actually liked girls. Something about that made it seem wrong, Aurelia recalls that a lot her parents' friends didn't have many nice things to say about people who liked the same gender. She remembers the dirty looks they would give to those people and she would remember that most every time she would go to say something about how she feels and she would stop. If people didn't know for sure that she liked girls than they couldn't judge her.

But, she can't tell Neville that she might have a crush on him because she isn't certain. She might just love him a lot but as a friend, she couldn't tell him something she wasn't certain of. And she was certain she liked girls as she liked boys and she was certain that Neville wouldn't judge her. So, really her only alternative is coming out.

"I was hoping that she'll be coming along with the Durmstrang students," She says nervously.

"Okay?"

"Well, I — I liker her . . . I like girls like you like girls . . . I find them cute the way you find Hannah cute," Aurelia explains.

Neville frowns. Great, somehow his chances of getting with her got even smaller. Merlin, why is it always me? "You like girls," He asks meekly.

Aurelia nods slowly, asking: "Is there something wrong with that?" She looks down at him, a panicked expression on her face because she was certain that he wouldn't judge her, and he quickly pushes aside his moping thoughts to reassure her that there's nothing wrong with liking girls.

Except for the fact he's not a girl.

"No, nothing at all! There's nothing wrong with loving someone!"

Aurelia sighs relieved, it feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She never thought that coming out, even to just one person, would make her feel so free.

"So, how long have you known you liked girls," He wonders, more like how long has he not only been making her uncomfortable but making a fool of himself by trying to show that he like-liked her.

"I was actually really young, it was probably after my disastrous crush on, Roseburke. There was Pansy, don't you ever tell her this, and Ginny but I'm pretty everyone kind knows I like her but they can't prove anything because well there was Blaise Zabini," Aurelia replies.

"Wait, so you all — also like boys?"

Aurelia nods and Neville grins goofily. Okay, so he does have a very slim chance of being with her one day! "Wait — what about, Hannah?!" _Merlin, Ari's got a crush on Hannah_!

"You faaannncy her!" Aurelia teases, her hair an odd shade of green. _Merlin's beard why do I feel so weird about Neville fancying Hannah, I should be happy for him, Hannah's a great girl_! As Ellie would say, she's fit. Aurelia couldn't blame Neville for fancying her of all people; _at least it's not Heather_.

_I don't fancy Hannah_! Neville thinks absolutely flabbergasted, he opens his mouth but he's so shocked — _Hannah_? _Really? Where on Earth did she get that idea_?!

Two Slytherins push past them to get a better view of the sky.

"An excuse me would be nice," Aurelia says sarcastically.

The one Slytherin — Pansy Parkinson, turns around and sneers, jeering: "A 'sorry for betraying my friends and family' would be nice."

Pansy Parkinson's a mean-spirited girl that likes to taunt and bully students including Aurelia, but Neville's come to notice that Pansy's got a different way of bullying Aurelia. It's never too harsh, he's seen Draco treat Aurelia worse, there's an almost edge of playfulness to her taunting when it comes to Aurelia. Aurelia's told him before that Pansy and her used to be best friends, when no one wanted Pansy around, Aurelia would be there. Aurelia had always treated Pansy nicely and even though Aurelia's now a Hufflepuff and Blood-Traitor, it seems that Pansy still respects Aurelia to a certain degree. And the feeling is mutual as Aurelia seems to hold a certain amount of respect for Pansy — on most days, at least.

The other Slytherin is known to Neville as 'All Knowing Abigale' a fourth-year that has a knack for predicting the future. From what he's heard, it's just little snippets and nothing useful but it's amusing all the same.

Abigale grins brightly at Neville and Aurelia, ignoring the tension between them "So, this is Malfoy? The one you told me? She's a lot prettier than you described, Pans," Abigale remarks.

Pansy goes pink, hissing: "Shut up, Abby!"

Neville glances at Aurelia, who's turned a noticeable red colour. He watches as she tries to give Pansy a teasing smile but fails miserably.

"So — uh — uh, how do you think the schools are going to get here," Aurelia squeaks out. 

Abigale grins wider "Mhm, aren't you a cutie-pie."

Neville narrows his eyes, jealous. Pansy's brown eyes flash dangerously as she tugs on Abigale's sleeve.

"To answer, carriage and boat. Not sure which school is which but they should be here any minute now," Abigale replies, smiling knowingly as she allows Pansy to drag her away.

"She's pretty," Aurelia breathes out.

Neville's stomach twists at the thought of Aurelia having a crush on someone else that isn't him. But, he reckons she's right, Abigale's pretty enough with her long, wavy brown hair, and chocolate brown, doe eyes but she's not as pretty as Aurelia — _okay, Neville, you need to tell her now_. Neville opens his mouth — _just tell her how you feel! What's the worst that can happen? She could hear me? Good Godric just tell her_ —

"Aha, if I'm not mistake the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches," Professor Dumbledore announces.

The crowd comes alive with exclamations and guess on what's heading towards them. Neville looks up at the sky, too dejected by the fact that he hadn't told Aurelia how he felt to be really interested in the approaching school. It turns out to be a very, very large carriage like Abigale had said. A very large woman steps out of the carriage and greets Professor Dumbledore — she must be the Headmaster, a group of girls and boys in thin-looking, blue uniforms step out after her.

Aurelia turns to Neville, her blue eyes gleaming as she excitedly exclaims: "Friends!"

Neville smiles "If you can speak French that is."

"Oh, I can! Mum taught Draco and I when we were young!"

"Well, then you're going to have lots of friends!"

"Oooh, I hope so!"

"I know so," Neville says, "They'll trample over each other to be friends with someone as lovely as you."

Aurelia blushes, then her nose scrunches up in annoyance as a low rumbling sound invades her ears. The two share cautious looks as the sound grows louder.

"The lake! Look at the lake," Lee shouts.

They do and sure enough a boat emerges from the waves; Durmstrang has arrived. Once the massive boat's been anchored in the Headmaster of Durmstrange comes forth to greet Professor Dumbledore. His students follow after him and among them Aurelia spots Noelle. Aurelia grabs Neville's arm and discreetly points at her "That's her, Plant Boy, that's the cute girl I met at the World Cup!"

"Oh," Neville mumbles when he spots the girl and all he can think is that he's bloody intimidated. He doesn't stand a chance against her.  
  


* * *

* * *

**AURELIA HANDS BACK** Neville's jumper that he had given to her when they had been standing out in the cold. Now that she's inside eating dinner after Dumbledore had given his welcoming speech, she no longer needs it.

"Thank you," Aurelia says.

"It's no problem," He replies, taking the jumper from her and tying around his waist.

A first-year Gryffindor sighs sadly next to Aurelia, she turns to him and smiles kindly "What's wrong, kid?"

He looks up at her, surprised "Oh, well . . . I like my milk warm and it's alway cold here, I . . . It reminds me of home, y'know."

Aurelia smiles softly "I gotta spell for heating things up."

He looks even more surprised as Aurelia pulls out her spell book from her cardigan pocket. Real magic is that it fits in there without any spell "It's a very temperamental spell — full pun intended — so it might make your milk too hot. It's not the best spell I've made —"

"You can make spells already," He asks in awe.

"Somewhat. But, I've been doing this since before Hogwarts," Aurelia says, pointing her wand at the boy's goblet of milk and casting the spell.

"Wow! Thanks! I'm Dennis — Dennis Creevy, by the way!"

"I'm —"

"Aurelia Black," A familiar German accent cuts in, "We meet again."

Aurelia looks up and smiles "Noelle!"

"Hello, Aurelia. I spotted you across the hall and thought I should come say 'hi' — are you doing school work at the dinner table," Noelle asks, peering at the black book in Aurelia's hand with her signed name on it.

"Oh, n — no! I was just hel — helping Dennis with his milk . . . Uh, how are you? I — I'm so hap — happy to see you," Aurelia stammers, flustered.

Neville scowls and busies himself with his dinner.

"How nice of you. I'm happy to see you as well, Aurelia. I was quite excited when they announced that our school would be uniting for this tournament because that meant I could see you."

Aurelia blushes.

"Well, I must get back before Karkaroff notices I've wandered off. I'll see you around, pretty girl," Noelle says, sauntering back to the Slytherin table where the rest of the Durmstrang students sit.

Moments later the feast comes to an end and Professor Dumbledore gets to his feet, announcing: "The moment has come at last, the Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to give some words of explanation before we bring in the casket."

"Well, that doesn't sound morbid at all," Aurelia mutters sarcastically, Dennis hears her and giggles.

Aurelia pays little attention to his speech, she's got no reason to as she can't enter the tournament. Not that she would want to if she could. Professor Dumbeldore asks Mr. Filch to bring in the casket which he does and then he continues on explaining. Aurelia leans her head on Neville's shoulder, only half-listening to what's being said. The only thing that catches her attention is the actual Goblet of Fire and that's because it's blue and looked cool.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line," Professor Dumbledore explains.

"Or you could just cancel the tournament all together," Aurelia mutters.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract."

_That doesn't sound good at all_ , Aurelia thinks as she shudders.

"Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all," He finishes his speech with a light tone.

With that students start clambering out of the Great Hall. As Aurelia walks beside Neville, she can hear Fred and George complaining about the age line and Hermione scolding them for it. Fred pushes his way between Aurelia and Neville, slinging his arm around her shoulder as he asks: "What about you, Blue? Are you going to try and enter?"

"Ugh, as if," She groans, "I'd fucking die if I got in. I don't want anything to do with that bloody tournament. It's too dangerous for me!"

Suit yourself," Fred says, retracting his arm from around her shoulder and turning back to his brother.

"Besides, I'm not worthy enough, the Goblet'd never pick me," Aurelia sighs.

Neville shakes his head "That's not true, you're very worthy."

The comment and the sweet smile on his face leaves Aurelia positively giddy for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all don't understand how much I love Abigale, she's my baby, my fav ( next to Aurelia ) and even though she doesn't play a big part in act one, she is the queen of act two and she causes so much chaos, I love her to bits and I hope you love her too!! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what you thought of it!!! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 5,182


	15. Out Of the Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which murphy's law should be renamed dumbledore's law because everything he does goes so bloody wrong . . . 

****

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

**013 ||** Out Of the Flames

* * *

******AURELIA WAKES UP** , sweating profusely as a scream falls from her lips. _Goyle's going to kill me! They're going to kill me — I'm going to die! I'm_ — Her whole body feels like it's on fire but not in a painful way, her muscles are tensed up — _I'm in danger — I'm in_ — a pillow hits her square in the face, startling her but it drags her out of her panicked stupor because there had been no pillows before. _It's just a nightmare_ , she realises, her body cools down significantly as she lets out a sigh of relief. _Goyle nor Rowle are there_ , neither of them can hurt her.

"Why are you bloody screaming," Hannah asks, annoyed.

Aurelia glances at her "Sorry, bad dream."

Hannah raises her eyebrows, huffing.

"I'm fine, go back to sleep."

Without hesitation, Hannah buries her head under her covers once more. Aurelia glances around the dorm, unsurprisingly Olivia had slept through her scream; Olivia can sleep through anything, she swears on it. Aurelia's surprised to see that Susan hadn't woken up; Susan Bones never sleeps. That statement is only slightly exaggerated, Susan sleeps very little, she's the last to go to sleep and the first to wake up, when she does sleep, Susan's a very, very light sleeper. She crawls out of bed and heads for the bathrooms, as she passes by Susan's bed, she hears a mumble of: "You alright, Blue?"

Aurelia lets out a startled gasp, although she shouldn't have been surprised that Susan's awake; she's still on edge because of that bloody nightmare. Unsure if her screaming woke Susan up or not, Aurelia says: "Oh, sorry, Suse! I —"

"I've been up since four. No worries, Blue," Susan waves her off, tucking her blankets under her chin as she stares up at Aurelia, "I just got up to use the loo a few minutes ago, I saw you tossin' and turnin' but you do that a lot so I didn't say nothin'. I saw Diggory sittin' by the fire when I passed."

"Oh, okay," Aurelia says, nodding as she slips out of the dorm and down the hallway to the bathrooms.

She's in definite need of a shower after that nightmare. Her pale, freckled skin is glistening with sweat and it kinda makes her looks like she's dying. She fees like she's dying, not psychically but mentally. The cool water against her heated skin feels good, she rubs the scrub brush up her left arm and to her shoulder the one where her sun-shaped birthmark resides, as it brushes the mark, a burning jolt rubs up and down her arm, her entire body feels like it's been engulfed in flames — _DANGER_! Her brain screams — _DANGER_!

Aurelia blinks, she's not in danger. Why does she think she's in peril danger when she's in the bloody shower? There's no danger here. The burning sensation dissipates immediately and Aurelia continues showering without another thought.   
  


* * *

* * *

**AS SUSAN HAD** said, Cedric had been sitting in an armchair by the fire. When Aurelia had come down and greeted him, he had just stared at the fire like it had murdered his entire family, she knew that look all too well. There had been a piece of parchment in his hand, which he had been debating whether or not he wanted to put it in the Goblet of Fire. And Aurelia had managed to convince him to do it with opposite intentions.

So now, Aurelia's scrambling after Cedric who's practically strutting his way to the Great Hall, oozing more confidence than usual, an excited smirk plastered on his handsome features. Just because she wholeheartedly believed he would win the tournament if he was chosen does not mean she wants him to enter. Does he not comprehend how damn dangerous the Triwizard Tournament is?

Entering the Great Hall, Aurelia's greeted by the sight of Noelle about to put her name in the goblet.

"Hey, Noelle," Aurelia calls out, growing flustered.

Noelle almost drops the parchment in her hands but she quickly recovers. She glances over her shoulder, an almost malicious smirk takes over her intimidating but pretty features "Hello, Aurelia."

"Good morning, Noelle," Aurelia says as she blushes furiously, "Entering are you?"

Noelle's shark-like grin widens "Oh, yes. I am."

"Well, er, good luck."

"Oh, I won't need it," Noelle says, bringing a new air of confidence to the already confident girl.

Aurelia giggles and Noelle stares intensely into Aurelia's eyes as she drops the parchment into the goblet. "Well, see you later, pretty girl," Noelle says, winking as she departs from the Great Hall.

"Wow," Aurelia says breathlessly, not even noticing Cedric stepping up and placing his name in the Goblet of Fire. _Noelle's so pretty_.

"Hmm, Neville's better." Cedric remarks, ruffling her hair.

"Well, Neville doesn't like me like Noelle, I'm pretty sure, does." — _wait, shit! What happened to not specifically saying you like girls? They can't judge you if they don't know for sure so you can't just say things like this_.

"Since when have you been fancying girls? Isn't that Liv's thing?"

Aurelia's eyes widen in alarm, she may have told Neville but she's not quite ready to tell more people, not even Cedric, she looks around the Great Hall for a distraction. "Since when have you — uh — oh, shit — since when have you liked — NEVILLE," Neville's tired, round face enters the Great Hall and Aurelia runs for him leaving behind a very confused Cedric who had only asked a simple question.

"PLANT BOY!"

Neville's engulfed in a hug before he even knows that Aurelia had been charging towards him.

"Good morning, sunshine," Aurelia says cheerily, giving him her signature finger-guns move and Neville wishes that the 'sunshine' nickname doesn't make his heart flutter as much as it does.

Neville wishes that the 'sunshine' nickname doesn't make his heart flutter as much as it does.

Cedric watches the two of them fondly before rolling his eyes "'Neville doesn't like me!' she says," he mutters mockingly, the look on Neville's face says otherwise.  
  


* * *

* * *

" **THAT'S THE SEVENTH** Durmstrang kid," Aurelia says to Neville, "They're a bunch of daring bastards, ain't they?" The pair had been sitting in the Great Hall for hours, chatting and watching the students placing their names in the Goblet of Fire.

"Would you put your name in there," Neville asks, peeling an orange.

"No," Aurelia replies, popping a raspberry into her mouth, "I've read so many horror stories about this tournament, the reward isn't worth it."

Neville nods, biting into an orange slice.

"What about you, Plant Boy? Would you enter?"

He snorts quietly then shakes his head "Absolutely not."

"Noelle entered, so did Cedric. And, I'm bloody certain Ellie's going to enter whenever the hell he wakes up," Aurelia says, shuddering.

Neville rolls his eyes at the mention of Noelle, chewing an orange slice aggressively.

"I hate this tournament," Aurelia says bitterly.

"It hasn't even started yet but I'm sure it'll be over before we know it," Neville reassures.

"Anyone entered yet," Ron questions as he, Harry, and Hermione take a seat at the table.

"Good morning to you too," Aurelia says as she rolls her eyes, "Pretty sure all the Durmstrang lot has. As for Hogwarts, I've only seen Cedric enter."

"Bet some of them put it in last night after we'd all gone to bed, I would've if it had been me . . . Wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again," Harry comments.

"That's not how it works. The goblet takes all the names put into it and when the time comes it chooses the names it deems most worthy," Aurelia explains and Harry and Ron stare at her bewildered as it's usually Hermione who spits out information like that.

"What? I read all about the tournament last year because Professor Binns recommended it to me since I was so far ahead in the class," Aurelia says, shamelessly bragging that she's top of the History of Magic class. Hermione and Draco are usually the top students in classes but when it comes to History of Magic, it's Aurelia's time to shine, and Aurelia doesn't let anyone forget that. It's nice to finally be best at something. The golden one, only when it comes to History of Magic but still good enough to be gold at _something_.

Laughter echoes around the Great Hall as Fred, George, Lee, and Ellie come running in. She rolls her eyes, immediately knowing that they've found a way to enter. Whatever they've got planned, Ellie doesn't need it as he had just turned seventeen five days prior to this; Ellie brushes his shaggy hair out of his face, he grins smugly as he steps up to the goblet and drops his name in it.

"Done it," Fred tells them as he grins triumphantly, "Just taken it!"

"What," Ron asks.

"Aging Potion, dung brain," Fred replies.

"One drop each. We only need to be a few months older," George adds, rubbing his hands together with glee.

"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the four of us if one of us wins," Lee says, grinning broadly.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know, I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this," Hermione warns them but the three boys ignore her.

"Ready," Fred asks George and Lee, quivering with excitement as he pulls out a piece of parchment out of his pocket.

Fred steps over the line and nothing happens, so George lets out a victorious cry as he jumps over the line as well. Then a sizzling sound can be heard and both of them are thrown back over the line with brutal force. They land on the stone cold floor ten feet away, both sporting long white beards.

"Oooh, damn," Aurelia wheezes, laughing. She wishes wouldn't have forgotten her camera in her dorm.

Professor Dumbledore enters the Great Hall, surveying the twins with an amused expression as he tells them to go see Madam Pomfrey.

Aurelia turns back to Neville and tells him: "I'm gonna go down to the Quidditch pitch, get some practice for next year. Y'know for when the game's not cancelled for a stupid reason such as the Diewizard Tournament."

"Can I come with you," He asks.

Her eyebrows furrow together in confusion "Why? I'm sure you have more important, entertaining things to do."

He shakes his head quickly — he's got a Potion's essay that's due Monday — "No, I've got nothing."

"You'll be bored."

He shakes his head again "Not at all!"

She raises an eyebrow "You really wanna sit and watch me fly around an empty Quidditch pitch?"

"Sure!"

"But, why?"

"Because it's fun. I like watching you fly and I like spending time with you."

"Oh — oh. Okay," Aurelia stutters, taken aback by Neville's statement. She blushes as Neville grabs her hand and they start heading for the Quidditch pitch.  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE QUIDDITCH PITCH** isn't as empty as Aurelia had expected it to be. It's not full by any means but there's two more people here than she had been counting on. It's Viktor Krum and the Headmaster of Durmstrang; Viktor's practicing as well.

Aurelia internally screams. She's not his biggest fan by any means but he's still famous. Not to mention, he's an amazing Seeker. She can't practice now, there's no way she's going to fly in front of Viktor bloody Krum and make a fool of herself as she's nowhere near as good as he is.

Neville's eyes are wide as he glances between Aurelia and Krum "Is that . . .?"

She nods quickly "May — maybe we should —"

"What are you two doing here," The Headmaster of Durmstrang demands harshly, pointing at the two of them.

Neville gulps loudly as he hides slightly behind Aurelia and Aurelia clutches the broom she had grabbed from the locker room to her chest.

"This is our school," Aurelia says meekly and when the Headmaster's glare hardens, she adds: "Uh well, we were just coming down here to pratice."

The Headmaster sneers at them "Viktor does not have time for fans."

Viktor Krum lands on the ground gracefully and Aurelia almost swoons. Not because she finds Krum attractive or anything but because his landing had been so smooth, she wishes her landings could be that smooth.

"Vot is going on, Karkaroff? Are these fans?"

"You have no time for fans, Viktor. You must practice," Karkaroff says.

"There are only two, it von't take long," Krum says.

"We're not here for autographs, honest. I was just coming down here to practice flying and he was coming along to watch. We didn't know that anyone would be here," Aurelia says nervously, Karkaroff's an intimidating bloke and Viktor bloody Krum's standing right in front of her.

"You play Quidditch," Krum questions, looking her over.

Aurelia nods, picking at her Quidditch sweater nervously.

"Vot position do you play?"

"S — Seeker."

"Vould you like to practice vith me?"

Aurelia blinks "You want me to practice with you?"

Krum nods.

Uh, holy shit! — "Okay," Aurelia agrees.

"How long haff you been a Seeker?"

"A year now."

"You haff the perfect build for a Seeker. So you haff only been flying for a year now?"

"Oh, no! I've been flying since I was a wee thing. About three, my brother and I had little brooms we used to play on. I got my first real broom when I was seven."

"So you haff had lots of practice?"

"I guess," Aurelia replies, shrugging her shoulders.

Krum grins lightly, turning to Karkaroff "I vill practice vith her. It vill be more of a challenge than vith only myself."

Karkaroff gives Aurelia a look that can only be read as 'Her? A Challenge? Ha!' but he nods his head, saying: "If that is what you want, Viktor."

Krum nods. Aurelia glances at Neville, grinning widely; Viktor fucking Krum wants to practice with her. Wow. The two mount their brooms and Karkaroff releases the Snitch into the pitch and they take off.

Both her and Viktor seems to have their eyes on the Snitch as they race across the field. They stretch their hands out for the Snitch, Aurelia's graze the golden surface of the ball but she's not close enough to catch it. The Snitch suddenly shoots upwards, the action happens so suddenly Aurelia almost misses it and Krum misses it completely. Aurelia shoots upwards after the Snitch, it takes Krum a few seconds to realise the Snitch was no longer in front of him and then he's shooting after her. She reaches out her hand — _almost, almost, almost_ — her slender fingers latch around the golden ball — _got it_! Her eyes widen in realisation, _she beat Viktor bloody Krum_! _Holy shit_!

"I — I got it," Aurelia announces.

She actually caught the Snitch before the professional, famous Quidditch player! _Wow_ , so maybe she's better at this than she thought? She lands on the ground, the Snitch clutched tightly in her hand as she internally screams. Aurelia waves the golden ball in the air to show Neville, who grins brightly at her and lets out a little cheer of: "Whoo! That's my Sunflower Girl!"

Krum lands beside her, he holds out his hand to shake "Vell done . . . I never caught your name?"

"I'm Aurelia Black, what's yours," She says — _you dumb bitch_! "Oh — I — sorry, force of habit," Aurelia stammers, cheeks going red with embarrassment.

However, Krum grins brightly "I am Viktor Krum. It is nice to meet you."

It's probably not often, he's asked his name, he must like the normalcy of the gesture, she thinks. Either that or he's just going along with it to save her the embarrassment. "So, O-rah-lee-yah —"

Aurelia snickers loudly but then her eyes widen "Oh, I'm so sorry! It's just that — well, that's not how you pronounce my name."

"It is not," Viktor questions, thick eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

She shakes her head "No. That's okay though, my name's real hard to pronounce. Even my parents pronounced it wrong at times and they're my parents! It's like 'Ah-rail-yah' or it can be also be pronounced like 'Ah-rail-lee-yah'. That's how my mum — uh, that's how Mae and Nev pronounces it but — uh, most of my friends call me, Blue," Aurelia prefers the way that Mae and Neville say her name; it sounds nicer.

"So I can call you, Blue, like the colour?"

Aurelia nods turning her brunette curls, blue. "Yep, exactly like the colour! Sorry for laughing at you like that. Another force of habit of mine, I find it real funny when people pronounce my name wrong, I laugh at everyone, if it helps."

_It does_!

Viktor sounds incredibly giddy as he says this but then Aurelia realises he hadn't opened his mouth to speak, he had only thought it. She blinks, clearing her mind to the best of the ability, she really needs to stop doing that. It had been getting out of control since her attack at the Quidditch World Cup, normally she had the hang of keeping out of people's thoughts, she had been trained to do so by her mom and Aunt Andy, but mostly her Aunt Andy, from a young age.

"Vell, Blue, care for another round," Viktor questions.

Aurelia looks to Neville, who nods as he lifts up a Herbology book. She turns back to Viktor, nodding "Sure thing!"  
  


* * *

* * *

" **YOU ASKED VIKTOR** Krum what his bloody name was," Ron exclaims flabbergasted.

Aurelia blushes "Leave me alone, Ronald!"

"Honestly, Blue, I think all these years of hanging out with Neville has made become just as bloody forgetful as he is," Ron says.

"Hey," Neville says, giving Ron a look as he blushes with embarrassment because Ron's right. Aurelia flips Ron off since Neville is too nice to make such a crude gesture.

"Did you at least get Krum's autograph," Ron demands ignoring Aurelias' long finger pointed directly in his face. In response to his question, Aurelia shakes her head, which earns an exasperated groan from him.

"I didn't have anything for him to sign! Plus I was way too busy getting my ass kicked by Viktor!"

"You won twice," Neville cuts in.

"Yeah, but, Viktor won the other seven times!"

"You still did amazing! Viktor Krum says so himself," Neville reminds, grinning at her with pride.

Aurelia blushes "I could've done better."

"Wait, so does this mean you're friends with Viktor Krum," Ron questions.

"Yeah, I guess it does," Aurelia replies with a grin, "Viktor, Nev, and I are goin' to get Butterbeer when the first trip to Hogsmeade comes around. Viktor's never had Butterbeer before, can you believe it?!"

Ron who had been about to sit down at the Gryffindor table misses the bench by an inch and falls right on his arse, spluttering: "What?!"

"I know! I was so surprised that he's never had —"

"No," Ron croaks out, "I — you're going to Hogsmeade with Viktor Krum?!"

"It's not a big deal — okay, it is! I'm friends with Viktor fuckin' Krum!"

Hermione rolls her eyes at the two of them, Fred and George plop down across from the lot of them, instantly changing the subject as Fred says: "I hope it's Angelina!"

"So do I! We'll know soon," Hermione says.

Aurelia glares at the Goblet of Fire, she doesn't want anyone to be chosen, she wants the bloody tournament to be cancelled. She piles some mashed potatoes, smoked ham, and peas onto her plate and digs in. The feast seems to pass by quicker than the last, much to Aurelia's dismay, and soon enough the plates are cleared and Professor Dumbledore's gotten to his feet.

"Well, I do believe the goblet is almost ready to make its decision, I estimate it requires another moment or too."

Aurelia groans, burying her face in her hands. _Please just cancel it before it begins, that's the smartest decision you can make when it comes to this tournament_.

"Now, when a champion's name is chosen, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber where they will be receiving their first instructions," Professor Dumbledore explains then using his wand, he extinguishes the candles in the Great Hall save for the ones in the carved pumpkins and the flames of the Goblet of Fire.

"Any second now," Lee whispers from the seat across of Aurelia.

She glances at the goblet which suddenly turns red as the flames spit up a charred piece of parchment. Professor Dumbledore grabs it and announces: "The champion of Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum!"

The Great Hall bursts into applause.

"No surprise there," Ron cries out.

At this, Aurelia and Ginny share a look then roll their eyes. Viktor walks up to the staff table and follows it along until he reaches the side chamber and disappears through the door. The applause dies down soon afterward and then seconds later the goblet turns red again, shooting out the second champion's name.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

The Great Hall bursts into applause yet again. _The Hogwarts champion is next_ , Aurelia thinks, _oh, shit, please don't be Cedric! Please don't be Ellie either_. She knows it's rude of her to wish for this as Cedric and Ellie, more so Cedric, are so excited for this tournament but Aurelia really can't help it. The Goblet of Fire turns red for the third and last time. _Please, please, please_.

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

"Oh, no," Aurelia mutters worriedly, she frowns, she wants to cheer for Cedric because he deserves support but she's so bloody worried about him. At least it's not Ellie, he's reckless for a Slytherin, and he gets hurt easily, he rarely wins the duels he's in despite being decent at magic. Aurelia knows that Ellie wouldn't survive the tournament because he's make a reckless wrong move and die painfully. Cedric, at the very least, was smart and calculating, very level-headed and he put thought and patience into everything, he stood a good chance at coming out of the tournament alive.

Everyone at the Hufflepuff table jumps to their feet, including Aurelia because it would be terribly rude if she'd did, and start screaming and stamping, as Cedric makes his way past them, grinning broadly, as he heads toward the chamber behind the staff table. The cheering of the Hufflepuffs lasts longer than the cheering for the other schools but finally it dies down and Professor Dumbledore begins to speak:

"Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —" He stops speaking, distracted by the Goblet of Fire which has turned red again.

"Oh, no," Aurelia gasps, this can't be happening! There's only supposed to be three champions! Aurelia's filled with dread as a fourth name is spit up from the goblet. _No. No. No_. Professor Dumbledore reaches out and grabs it, there's a long pause as he stares at it.

_It's Harry_. Somehow it's got to be Harry. It's always Harry. Aurelia bites her nails nervously, waiting for the Headmaster to read the name but before he can the goblet turns red and spits up a fifth name. Professor Dumbledore reaches out and grabs that, without tearing his gaze from the other piece of parchment.

_Whose names are those_? One of them's got to be Harry's! Or perhaps, it was the twins and that's why the there's two of them. _Wait, no_ , remember what happened to them this morning. Aurelia's mind is racing and her heart is hammering in her chest, this isn't supposed to be happening. There's never, ever been more than three champions picked before. _Who could it be_? More importantly — _why the bloody fuck is this happening_?!

There's a long, terrible pause before Professor Dumbledore clears his throat, announcing: "Harry Potter and . . . Aurelia Black!"

It feels like someone has stomped hard on her chest, knocking all the air from her lungs "Oh, fuck!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's ironic about Aurelia believing that Ellie would die in the tournament compared to Cedric is that Ellie would actually survive, the third task I mean as he's the kid of Death-Eaters so Voldy would have him spared in the third task, his mum is very loyal to Voldy ( mostly out of trauma but it's all the same to Voldy because he SUCKS ) and Voldy isn't aware that Regulus betrayed him, he thinks Regulus got merked by an auror or something so Ellie would 100% survive the tournament. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 4,172


	16. More Than Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if aurelia cannot win this tournament with her abilities than she will win it out of pure spite . . .

****

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN** :

 **014 ||** More Than Survive

* * *

**HER HEART SEEMS** to have dropped into her stomach. _No_ , the world is spinning around her, _no_! This kind of thing doesn't happen to her, _no_ , this is something that happens to Harry bloody Potter.

 _No_ , she must be hallucinating, he can't have called her name. Aurelia opens her mouth to deny it but all that comes out is a strangled wheeze. _No_ , she can't be a Triwizard champion, _no_ , she'll die in this thing, she's not cut out for this. She doesn't want this. Tears burn her eyes.

Both Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout leap to their feet to whisper something in Professor Dumbledore's ear. This is actually happening, it shouldn't be but it is. _Fuck_ , her worst nightmare is happening, _no, Merlin, why me_?

"N — n — no," Aurelia whimpers hoarsely, covering her mouth with a trembling hand.

"Ari," Neville whispers fearfully as he stares at her with wide eyes.

She shakes her head quickly, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She's not meant for this, she's not — _oh, Merlin_! She's going to die, she doesn't want to die! A horrible, panicky feeling builds in the pit of her stomach and a fiery hot feeling ignites in every fibre of her being. She doesn't want this, it's too dangerous, she's not cut out for this!

Aurelia inhales a shuddering breath, the room seems to be spinning more violently now. Why is this happening to her?!

"Harry Potter! Aurelia Black," Dumbledore calls out again, "Harry, Aurelia! Up here if you please!"

Aurelia shakes her head so violently she makes herself even dizzier "No, I — I don't please, I — I d — don't wanna go — go up there! I did — didn't put my name in that da — damn gob — g — goblet," She can hardly breathe, she keeps shaking her head even as Harry gets to his feet and slowly heads to the top of the hall, looking way too calm for what just happened.

"Aurelia Black," Dumbledore calls again.

Aurelia refuses "I did — I didn't put my name in th — that thing," she says shrilly through gasps for breath. Now, most of the students had taken their eyes off Harry and placed them on her. Aurelia feels like she's going to be sick, her head is throbbing and her body is tensed up and it feels like her body is on fire — _I can't be in this tournament, I'll die a painful, horrible death! I'm not strong enough for this_!

Neville places his hands on her shoulders, softly saying: "Ari, you've got to go up there, how else are they going to get you and Harry out of this mess?"

That's the problem, her and Harry won't be able to get out of this mess, once a name's been spit out by the goblet they're stuck in the tournament to the end. In other words, Aurelia's totally fucked. She's still struggling to breathe as Professor Dumbledore calls her name for a third time.

"I — I — I didn't put m — m — my name in — in that gob — goblet."

"I know, I know," Neville soothes, "But, you've got to go with the other champions. We — we can wa — walk up there together if that'll make you feel better?"

Aurelia knows that at this point, nothing'll make her feel better. She's just been entered into the Triwizard Tournament not only against the rules but against her will, she's doomed! She nods her head and Neville grabs her hand as he helps her stand up. Aurelia's terrified; she can't do this!

By the time they reach the side chamber's door, Harry had just disappeared through it. Professor Sprout stops Neville from going down, saying only champions can go down there. Aurelia's stomach lurches, she can't do this without Neville. She doesn't want to go down there alone.

"I'll wait for you," Neville promises.

This doesn't settle her nerves even though she knows he will. Descending the stairs, Aurelia can no longer hold back her tears. Surely, this can't be happening to me? How on Earth did Harry look so calm about this whole thing? Is he just internally panicking or is she just weak?

As she comes to the stop at the bottom of the stairs, Aurelia hears Fleur Delacour asking Harry: "Do zey want us back in ze hall?"

Aurelia truly wishes that's the real reason why her and Harry had to come down here, to go and fetch the champions but it's not; they're the bloody champions — _well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw_! Her eyebrows furrow together, she needs to come up with a more wizard-appropriate catchphrase, she doesn't really know what a chainsaw is and she takes in the three older, actually willing participants wonders why she's thinking about that when she's literally just been entered in a tournament of death.

She sniffles, muttering "Fuck this, fuck that, fuck everything, fuck —"

Cedric's gaze lands on her and he asks: "Blue, what's going on? What's happened?"

"Something that's not supposed to happen," Aurelia sobs as her hair turns white, "We were — weren't supposed to be chosen! This is — is supposed to be the TRIwizard Tournament not the FIVEwizard Tournament!"

Before Cedric can question exactly what Aurelia means, there's the sound of scurrying feet and Ludo Bagman exclaiming: " Extraordinary!"

Bagman grabs Harry and Aurelia's arm but she rips herself from his grasp, he doesn't seem to mind as he squeezes Harry's arm "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . Lady, may I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fourth tri — and fifth Triwizard champion?"

Viktor Krum straightens up, his surly face darkened as he surveys Harry and Aurelia. Cedric looks positively nonplussed, he looks from Bagman to Harry and Aurelia then back again as though he must've misheard what Bagman had said.

Fleur Delacour, however, tosses her hair, smiling as she says: "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke? No, no, not at all! Harry's n — and Black's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire," Bagman says, bewildered.

"It's Aurelia, asshole," She mutters under her breath, "And technically it is a joke because neither of us put our damned names in that goblet! Someone else did, we're far too young!"

Viktor's thick eyebrows contracted slightly, Cedric's still looking positively surprised, and Fleur frowns — the only one who obviously sees the problem here!

"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," Fleur says contemptuously, " Zey cannot compete. Zey are too young."

"Ex — exactly! There's been a mistake, she's right! You can't let — let us compete, we're too young! We're children," Aurelia exclaims, face turning red as she grows increasingly frustrated.

Why does no one understand that she doesn't want this?!

"Well . . . It is amazing," Bagman says, as he rubs his smooth chin and smiles down at Harry, "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his — their names did come out of the goblet . . . I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage. . . . It's down in the rules, they're obliged . . . Harry will just have to do the best he —"

"I DON'T FUCKING WANT THIS," Aurelia screams, drawing the attention of everyone in the room and those entering it, "I DIDN'T PUT MY NAME IN THE GOBLET!"

Her hair turns red in anger "I'm just a child! I can't — I can't do this! I'm not prepared for this, I didn't choose this, someone put my name in that goblet without my permission and I sh — shouldn't have to pay for that! I'm sure Harry feels the way. I mean come the fuck on, he's Harry fucking Potter, he definitely didn't put his name in that goblet! He's a fucking trouble magnet, Voldemort probably put his name in that goblet somehow, it wouldn't be the first time he got into Hogwarts undetected. Neither of us put our fucking names in the goblet!"

Professor Dumbledore comes down the stairs, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Snape and Lyra.

"Madame Maxime," Fleur says at once, striding over to her headmistress, "Zey are saying zat zee little children are to compete also!"

"I'm children, not little," Aurelia snaps, "Calm down, Delacour, we don't want to compete! Is anyone fucking listening to me?! Merlin's beard! I don't fucking want this — I don't want to deal with this bullshit!"

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr," Madam Maxime says imperiously.

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore. Three Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed three champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough," Professor Karkaroff says, letting out a short and nasty laugh.

"There isn't," Aurelia cries shrilly, "There's only supposed to be one champion each, my name — our names shouldn't've come out of it! There's been a ter — terrible mistake!"

She rushes over to Professor Sprout, tearfully crying: "You — you can't let us com — compete! We didn't p — put our names in! We — we're just children, we — we can't do this."

"C'est impossible, 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave three champions. It is most injust," Madam Maxime says.

"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," Professor Karkaroff says, his steely gaze colder than ever, "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."

"It's no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," Professor Snape says softly, his black eyes were alight with malice, "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here —"

"Please Snape! Potter's not smart enough to get across the age line on his own — no offense, Potter, the real culprit is Malfoy. Her entire family is full of Death-Eaters, she found away across the line, somehow, to get Potter's name in there to get him killed, of course, then threw in her name for good measure. To make sure she's not a suspect. You can drop the act now, Malfoy —" Lyra hisses, glaring daggers at Aurelia.

Aurelia cowers under her aunt's lethal gaze.

"Thank you, Severus, Lyra," Dumbledore says firmly effectively shutting them up. He looks down at Aurelia and Harry, asking: "Did either of you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"

They both shake their heads.

"No," Harry says earning a snort of impatient disbelief from Professor Snape.

"No, sir," Aurelia says, from the corner of her eye she sees Lyra roll her eyes.

"Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you," Dumbledore asks.

"No," Harry insists.

"Wait — wait, you mean you made an age restriction but you didn't think to do something from stopping older students putting in names for younger students?" Aurelia asks in complete disbelief, "Do you know how fucked that is! Do you know how many older students hate me — Roseburke! Warrington! Aldridge! — and do you know how many older students hate Harry! Most of these students come from Death-Eater families and they didn't have an age restriction to worry about!: Warrington! Wilkes! Wiltmire! I didn't ask an older student to put my name in but for all we fucking know, they could've done it without my permission! Same goes with Harry," Aurelia exclaims, her chest heaving up and down quickly with every breath she takes.

"Ah! Of course zey are lying," Madam Maxime cries angrily.

"Listen, lady —" Aurelia begins to snap but she's cut off my Professor McGonagall.

"They could not have crossed the Age Line," Professor McGonagall says sharply. "I am sure we are all agreed on that —"

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," Madame Maxime counters, shrugging.

"It is possible, of course," Dumbledore says politely.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake," Professor Sprout exclaims, patting Aurelia's back as she lets out little shaky sobs here and there.

"Really, what nonsense! Harry nor Aurelia could not have crossed the line themselves, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that they did not persuade an older student to do it for them, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else," McGonagall says angrily, shooting Lyra and Snape dirty looks.

"Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Bagman, you are our — er — objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular," Karkaroff questions, uncertainly.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament," Mr. Crouch says curtly.

Aurelia dissolves into tears — _I'm going to fucking die_!

Professor Sprout pats her shoulder "There, there. Dear, don't cry."

She only cries harder.

The room bursts into an argument, complete and utter chaos. It only gets worse when Moody steps in. The newest professor accuses Karkaroff of putting Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, the second person to completely disregard the fact that Aurelia's name had been entered too, the first being Bagman.

Karkaroff, to Aurelia's knowledge, could've been a Death-Eater, she remembers her dad mentioning that name once or twice to Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson. But, he had been one of the few to escape an Azkaban sentence, so Aurelia really can't see Karkaroff risking his freedom to have a go at Harry, fourteen years after his 'master' had died.

"You could've put Harry's name in the goblet," Aurelia speaks up giving Moody a dark look. She says this mostly out of spite for how he's treated her, there's no real belief in her words but she wants to have a go at him, someway, somehow. She inhales sharply, waving her arms about with a dramatic flare "How do we know you're even the real Moody?"

Everyone, including Aurelia misses Moody's eyes flashing dangerously at this remark, Aurelia continues her angry rant through tears: "It wouldn't be the first time we've had Voldemort disguised as a professor. Hell, you could've put my name in the goblet, you seem to really hate me and my family!"

Moody glances at Harry with his glass eyes, ignoring as Aurelia as he says: "I don't see Potter complaining."

Aurelia narrows her red eyes, this bitch definitely put my name in the goblet. He's got a good motive, that being to stop her from turning out to be as crazy and evil as the rest of her family, there's an eighty percent chance that she'll die in this tournament. But, who put Harry's name in it? Moody, if he really is Moody — there hasn't really been any proof that he's not Moody so she can't really say he's not — wouldn't want Harry Potter of all people in this tournament.

"Why should zey complain," Fleur Delacour cries out, stamping her foot. "'Zey 'ave ze chance to compete, 'aven't ze? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools! A thousand Galleons in prize money — zis is a chance many would die for!"

"Mhm, sweetie, not to sound snobby or anything but next to Viktor, I'm probably the richest bitch in this entire room. I've got three of the biggest vaults in Gringotts at my disposal," Aurelia says, if she hadn't been crying when she had say that, she would've praised herself for being a sassy little shit but, no, instead she sounds like a sensitive little shit.

"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it," Moody says.

"Did or did my name not get spit up by that goblet? As much as I hate the fact I have to participate in this tournament, I am part of it. And someone could be hopin' that I end up dead too," Aurelia exclaims, wiping tears from her eyes.

The room falls silent for a moment, Aurelia sniffles as she hugs her lanky arms around her waist. Fuck, all she wanted is one — one damn peaceful year at Hogwarts! If she survives this damned tournament, if, she's made up her mind, she's dropping out of Hogwarts! She's had enough of this shit.

First being sorted into Hufflepuff, which isn't a problem now but it did lead to her saying she didn't want to be a Malfoy anymore and her parents agreeing that it's best that she move out and into Mae's care. Then the whole her finding Tom — _Tim_? Riddle's diary in Ginny's possession and trying to save Ginny from Voldemort's dark magic which resulted in her getting petrified by a glorified giant magic snake. And in third year she got attacked by a Dementor, only once unlike Harry who was tormented by them, but the fact it even happened to her was bullshit. Why do bad things always happen to her, she's not the worst person, she doesn't deserve this. She's so tired of it.

"We all know Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn't discovered six plots to murder him before lunchtime," Karkaroff says loudly, "Apparently he is now teaching his students to fear assassination too. An odd quality in a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dumbledore, but no doubt you had your reasons."

"Imagining things, am I," Moody growls, "Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in that goblet."

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat," Madame Maxime questions, throwing up her huge hands.

"Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object," Moody say, "It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament. . . . I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school and Malfoy under a fifth, to make sure they were only ones in their category."

Aurelia narrows her eyes suspiciously "You seem to know a lot —"

"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody!" Karkaroff remarks coldly, "And a very ingenious theory it is — though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you'll understand if we don't take you entirely seriously!"

"There are those who'll turn innocent occasions to their advantage," Moody retorts in a menacing voice, "It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff — as you ought to remember!"

"Alastor," Dumbledore says warningly, both Karkaroff and Moody fall silent.

"How this situation arose, we do not know. It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Cedric, Aurelia, and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. Therefore, the three will do," Dumbledore says.

Aurelia inhales sharply, the room starts spinning again. She won't last a second in this tournament, Merlin, she doesn't want to die.

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr —"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it."

Madame Maxime says nothing, merely glaring, she's not the only one though; everyone except for Bagman looked positively livid.

"Well, shall we crack on, then," Bagman says, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room, "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"

"Yes," Mr. Crouch says, blinking, "Instructions. Yes . . . The first task. The first task is designed to test your daring so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard . . . Very important. . . . The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

"Ah, that's great to hear, I've got to compete in a deadly tournament against my will but — hey, _ha ha, ha_ , at least I don't got to do my exams," Aurelia scoffs sarcastically, rolling her teary eyes.

Upon finishing the instructions, Crouch turns to Dumbledore "I think that is all, Albus."

Aurelia looks to Professor Sprout, swallowing the lump in her throat "P — professor?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Can I — I leave now?"

Sprout pats her back "In a few minutes, you must wait until you're dismissed."

Aurelia sighs tiredly, wiping more tears from her eyes.

"Lyra," Sprout whispers to the younger professor.

Lyra raises an eyebrow "Yes, Pomona?"

"Go write to Maeve Macleod, Remus Lupin, and . . . I'm sorry to ask this of you but, your sister."

Aurelia glances at them, she gets why Professor Sprout wants her aunt to write to her mum and Mae but, Remus?

Lyra looks so offended "You want me to write to her? I —"

"Do you want her to find out through the paper," Sprout counters.

Lyra scowls then huffs "I doubt, the wretch'll answer any letter from me."

"Let her know it's about Aurelia on the envelope and she will," Sprout says, patting Aurelia's back still.

Aurelia's somehow even more confused. Her mum's not gonna care if it's about her or not, her mum's hardly contacted her since Aurelia disowned herself from the Malfoys and had taken her mum's maiden name as her own.

"No," Lyra says after a moment, her grey eyes shining with unshed tears "I'm not writing to her, she ruined my life, Pomona, and so did —"

"That's enough, Lyra, don't write to her then," Sprout says.

"I'll let Remus handle the wretch, since —" Lyra cuts herself off, a few tears slide down her cheeks as she shakes her head. "She gets everything," She mutters under her breath then stalks out of the chamber, much to Aurelia's confusion.

What's Remus go to do with this?

Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff leave the chamber, dragging their champions with them. This distracts Aurelia from her pondering as she's once again hit with the realisation that she's a fucking Triwizard champion. She holds back a sob as Dumbledore dismisses, her, Harry, and Cedric.

"Harry, Cedric, Aurelia, I suggest you go to bed. I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise," Dumbeldore tells them.

Aurelia swallows thickly, bewildered that he could possibly think that she wants to celebrate this. But, she along with Cedric, nods her head. The three of them leave together, venturing back up to the Great Hall which is deserted save for Neville, who perks up when he sees Aurelia.

"Ari! Harry! Have they fixed everything," He questions, stumbling over to them.

Harry shakes his head numbly and Aurelia lets out a loud sob, Neville's hopeful expression falters "W — what happened?"

"We've got to compete," Harry says blankly.

"Yeah, we've got to compete against each other." Cedric says with a slight smile and Aurelia can't understand how he's smiling at a moment like this.

Neville's eyes widen as he looks at Aurelia who's once again dissolved into tears. Harry and Cedric leave her behind with Neville. Aurelia hears Cedric ask Harry how he really got his name in the goblet; Neville pulls her into a tight hug and Harry's response is muffled by Neville's jumper which her ear is pressed against.

"Are you alright," Neville asks, softly stroking her white curls as Aurelia cries into his jumper. Maybe, it's not the best question to ask but, he know's she'd much rather have him ask that than tell her that everything's going to be fine.

"This is real fine! Everythin' is fine and nothing is wrong in this world," Aurelia replies, her tone hysterical.

Not the answer he's looking for, he raises an eyebrow "Then why are you having an emotional breakdown?"

"I'm not," She denies shrilly, sobbing loudly yet again.

"Ari, do — do you really have to do this?"

"Yes," She wails, body shaking violently as she does so, "Oh, Merlin! I'm not prepared for this! I can't do this, Neville, I'm goin' to die! I'm just a child, I don't know what to do! I can't do this! I can't!"

 _Sweet Merlin_ , Aurelia's terrified.

"Yes, you can. You're Aurelia Black, and you can do anything! If you can fight off Gwendoline Goyle then you can do this!"

Aurelia shakes her head, clinging to him "No, Neville, not this. Not — no. I really can't do this."

"You can, I promise, you can do this because you already know so much about this tournament, you've read all about it, it — it's not always the same but sometimes they do pretty similar things, right? You just need to look for clues, look for spells. I — know it's scary but you're not alone. You've got me, you've got Cedric, and Harry. I'll be right by your side, through out this entire thing. You can count on me, Sunflower Girl," Neville reassures her.

Aurelia hugs him tightly, crying into his shoulder "I'm not ready for this!"

"I know, none of us were," Neville mumbles, "You don't have to win this thing, Ari, you've just got to survive."

"Some — someone put me in there because they want me dead!" Aurelia sobs, "They don't want me to survive, they — they aren't expectin' me to survive."

"Then . . . Then, prove them wrong."

Aurelia blinks, surprised at this "W — w — what?"

Neville turns red "Well, you say they put you in there to hurt you because they think it'll work, so show them that you — that it won't. Show them you can beat this — I know you can, but they don't. Prove them wrong, survive this, hell, win it!" Neville's eyes are wide as he gives her shoulders a little shake of encouragement "You can do this, Ari, you're smart, you're quick, you know how to fight! If anyone can win this tournament, it's you."

Aurelia breathes heavily, her eyes wide. He actually thinks I can win this? He actually thinks I can survive this?

"Do more than survive — win."

He's right. As terrified as she is, and as much as she doesn't want anything to do with this tournament, she's got to win — or at least survive it. Someone clearly put her in this tournament with the intentions of watching her be killed, they obviously think that she's weak — and, hey, they might be right but, what's that to stop her from proving that fucker wrong. Although she doubts that she can.

"You really think I can," She asks Neville uncertainly.

He nods his head, firmly saying: "I know you can."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the the plot starts to thicken, it doesn't really get THICC until chapter 62 where the worst is finally known to Aurelia but the plot is starting to boil and it only gets better ( in angst and drama and identity crises ) from here on out! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 4,557


	17. Keeping Up With the Malfoys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black almost ends rita skeeter's entire career . . .

****

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN** :

 **015 ||** Keeping Up With the Malfoys

* * *

**THE REST OF** the night is a complete blur to Aurelia, there's a huge party in the common room when she gets there most of them ignore her in favour for Cedric, some glare at her, her friends try to force her to celebrate but she shrugs them off. She feels like someone's suffocating her, nothing is right, everything is going to crush and burn. This shouldn't have happened to her, why, why, why?

Aurelia crawls under her covers, reviling in the darkness of the dorm and her misery as she tries to make it go way. She's not sure what she's trying to make go away, she wants her mind to stop racing, she wants her heart to stop hammering against her chest, she wants this overwhelming panic to end.

She thought this year might go by decently despite the Triwizard Tournament being revived, she thought that she'd be able to keep herself together, keep her life moving on a track, but she's now running off the track because all the bolts and rails have all cracked. Everything around her is crashing and burning and she can't breathe. She can't fucking breathe. Someone put her name in the Goblet of Fire to harm her or possibly kill her and no one is looking into it. No one cares, no one seems to realise that she too has been placed into the deadly tournament, they only care about Harry Potter.

She's got even more of a disadvantage than Harry, he's got supporters because he killed Voldemort whereas her family supported Voldemort, they killed for Voldemort. No one is going to care if she gets hurt or if she dies, that's why she's in this thing in the first place. She feels so all alone.

Much to her surprise she falls asleep before any of her dorm mates even come to bed, Aurelia falls asleep hoping that this had all been a terrible dream. When she wakes up, the rising sun shines through the little circular windows, all her dorm mates are tucked in their beds sleeping peacefully. Aurelia doesn't feel at peace; she doesn't feel anything at all.

Pulling herself from her bed, she heads to the showers.

Not even ten minutes, her dorm mates stir from their slumber — except Susan, she's been awake for hours. Olivia, normally not a morning person, is exceedingly giddy as she jumps up from her bed.

Olivia throws a pillow at the lump of sheets on Aurelia's bed that look deceivingly like a person curled up on the covers.

"Leave her alone, Newton," Susan says, shaking her head at her dorm mate's antics.

"Why, Bones," Olivia retorts, throwing another pillow at Aurelia's bed.

"She clearly doesn't want to be bothered, she probably wants to sleep in and not deal with the fact that she's in the tournament. In case you haven't bothered to notice, she wants nothing to do with it." Susan replies.

"Then how did her name get in if she didn't put it in?" Olivia counters.

"Who knows. Oh, Blue left to take a shower ten minutes ago," Susan tells her, "Those are just blankets."

"Oh."

Hannah rolls her eyes at Susan and Olivia as she makes her bed.

"She probably entered to impress Lover Boy Longbottom," Hannah says, half-jokingly and half-bitterly.

Susan and Olivia turn to stare at her.

"What? Too soon?"

"Just a little," Olivia replies, smiling pitifully at her.

Hannah adores Aurelia, she really does. Aurelia's a great and loyal friend and Hannah normally doesn't talk bad about her. But, Hannah started crushing on Neville Longbottom, the same boy that Aurelia's been blatantly crushing on since second year. Now, Hannah's been very bitter towards Aurelia even though she tries really hard not to be. Aurelia's her friend first and she's trying really hard not to let some silly crush come between them. Especially now more than ever, Aurelia needs all the support she can get and Hannah's got to do her best not to let her jealousy get in the way so she can support her friend.

"If this were a Muggle movie, Blue would've come into the room just as you said that." Olivia quips.

Believing Olivia's hinting that Aurelia had entered the dorm, Hannah whips her head around only to find that Olivia had truly been joking. However, seconds later, Aurelia enters the dorm looking like a zombie.

"Oh, look! It's Aurelia Lee!"

Hannah and Susan share confused looks but Aurelia, who's seen Grease like a thousand times thanks to Olivia, sighs and snaps: "Alright, which one of you bitches is shit talking me?!"

Hannah freezes because: how does she knows?

Olivia laughs "No one's shit talking you. Honestly, we were just talking about you and the tournament before you entered. You know me, I can't resist my Grease references."

Aurelia rolls her brown eyes as she stumbles over to her bed to grab her wand off her night stand. She points her wand at her hair, muttering the spell for the Hot Air Charm to dry her soaking wet hair. "What classes do we have to — it's Sunday," Aurelia realises with a groan, "Aw, fuck!"

The three girls stare at her concerned, Olivia asks: Are you gonna be alright?"

They frown as she replies: "No."  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE REST OF** Sunday passes without incident mostly because Aurelia stayed in her dorm room all day, refusing to go out when her friends asked her too. Then Monday comes around and Aurelia knows it's going to be a dreadful day, maybe even week, the moment she wakes up from a horrid nightmare. The nightmare had been about the Goblet of Fire. More specifically, who put her name in the Goblet of Fire.

In the nightmare, Voldemort had been sitting in Dumbledore's chair, in the Great Hall, and she was sure it was him. She had seen a drawing of him, Maeve had drawn him once years ago and she had stumbled across it. He was scary to look at, he radiated a dangerous power as he sat in the chair like it was his throne; glaring down at the Goblet of Fire with dark eyes.

In front of the Goblet had stood her Aunt Bellatrix, holding a crumpled piece of parchment in her hand, just above the burning blue flame.

"You know my rule, Bella," Voldemort had hissed, "She must be destroyed. They all must be destroyed. Put her name in the goblet and she will perish."

Her aunt didn't need to be told twice, dropping the name into the fire without a hint of remorse, her icy blue eyes alight with an alarming madness.

As Aurelia's name disappeared into the depths of the goblet, the blue flames turned red and her aunt let out a shrill and terrible laugh. But it had not been her aunt's real laugh but Gwendoline Goyle's laugh.

Aurelia had looked up only to watch her aunt's face literally melt into Goyle's face. At this, Aurelia had let out a horrified scream and promptly woke herself up.

She immediately knows that she's late as her dorm is completely empty. Looking at the alarm clock on Olivia's night stand, her eyes widen in horror. Class had started ten minutes ago. To make matters worse, she had Potions first thing.

"Oh, shit," Aurelia yelps, jumping out of bed. _This is going to be a very, very long week_.   
  


* * *

* * *

**FRIDAY AFTERNOON, DURING** her favourite class of all, History of Magic, the Triwizard Tournament comes back around to ruin her already shitty mood. Colin Creevey arrives along with Harry, the second-year tells Professor Binns that 'Mr. Bagman needs her and Harry for photos.' and Aurelia finds herself being dragged out of her favourite class to go get some stupid photos to promote a stupid tournament she doesn't want to nor shouldn't be in.

Stepping out the classroom, Colin comments that it must be amazing to be a champion and it takes everything in Aurelia not to scream bloody murder.

"What do they need photographs for," Aurelia sighs tiredly.

"The Daily Prophet."

Aurelia freezes, if they've sent Rita fucking Skeeter to write the articles about the tournament then Aurelia's going to throw herself out a window. She hates Rita Skeeter and she's pretty certain the feeling's mutual. It's a family thing, really. And it all started when her Aunt Bellatrix went to Hogwarts, her and Skeeter had been dorm mates, to make a very long, petty feud-filled story short, everyone in Aurelia's family hates Rita Skeeter because her and Bellatrix had been in a seven year-long fight over who the meanest bitch at school was. Spoiler alert: neither won. Gwendoline Goyle took the cake on that one.

"Fuckin' wonderful," Aurelia curses, "Harold, if I try to throw m'self out a window, don't try and stop me."

"If you call me Harold one more time you can count on me to be the one to throw you through that window," Harry retorts.

"Harold."

Colin comes to a stop in front of classroom door "Good luck," he tells them and hurries back to whatever class he's supposed to be in. Harry knocks on the door before entering it, Aurelia following behind him.

It's a rather small classroom and it's hard to miss Rita Skeeter and her dramatically magenta-coloured robs. And it's hard for Rita to miss the Bellartrix clone walking through the door even with the Boy-Who-Lived right beside her.

"You," The blonde hisses, narrowing her eyes.

"You," Aurelia hisses back, matching Skeeter's tone of malice.

Rita looks like she's going to tackle Aurelia and she might've had Bagman not exclaimed: "Ah, here he is! Champion number four and five! In you come, Harry, in you come . . . Nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment —"

Aurelia doesn't bother mentioning that — _hey! I exist y'know, asshole_! to Bagman because at this point it's a lost cause, all he cares about is Harry. She doesn't like the fact are people are completely ignoring the fact she's part of this tournament even though that's exactly what she's trying to do.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," Bagman explains, "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter, she's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet. . . ."

"Maybe not that small, Ludo," Skeeter says, her eyes on Harry and Aurelia.

Aurelia glares at her, trying to remember all the stories that her mother had told her about Skeeter. If Skeeter tries to pull something against her, she'll use one of the pranks her aunts pulled on her. Aurelia smiles, recalling her favourite one — the perfect one.

"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry and Aurelia before we start," Skeeter asks Bagman as she gazes fixedly at Harry and Aurelia, "The youngest champions, you know . . . To add a bit of color?"

 _Bull fucking shit_ , Aurelia thinks, rolling her eyes.

"Certainly," Bagman cries, "That is — if Harry has no objection?"

He didn't even try to include Aurelia this time around, she rolls her eyes again.

"Er —" Harry says.

"I'd rather die," Aurelia mutters darkly but it's too late. Skeeter's wrapped her fingers — more like talons, around Aurelia's skinny forearm and then she grabs Harry's with the other, the bitch has got a surprisingly strong grip.

"Lovely," Skeeter says, dragging Aurelia and Harry out of the room and to a nearby door. She opens that and shoves Aurelia into it, she's a bit more careful with Harry.

"We don't want to be in there with all that noise," Skeeter remarks, "Let's see . . . Ah, yes, this is nice and cozy."

It's a broom cupboard.

"Ah, _a closet_ , I feel right at home," Aurelia sarcastically remarks under her breath.

"What was that, dear," Skeeter asks, the word 'dear' is laced with enough venom to kill Aurelia ten times over.

"Nothing," Aurelia snaps.

Skeeter narrows her eyes before smiling too sweetly at Aurelia and Harry and asking: "You won't mind if I use a Quick-Quotes Quill? It leaves me free to talk the two of you normally. . . ."

"I'd much —"

"A what," Harry questions.

 _Oh, sweet Merlin, this bitch is going to write so much shit about us_ , Aurelia thinks exasperated.

"Testing . . . My name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter," Skeeter says, the quill starts to write on its own, "Lovely . . . So, Harry . . . what made you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Wait, we never said you could use that quill," Aurelia points out annoyed.

"Er —" Harry says, distracted by the quill that is writing down words that aren't being spoken.

"Ignore the quill, Harry," Skeeter tells him firmly, "Now — why did you decide to enter the tournament, Harry?"

"We didn't," Aurelia answers for him, she doesn't trust Skeeter and Harry's got no idea how terrible this woman can be, "We're too young to put our names in, we — especially me — want nothing to do with this tournament. We've got no idea how our names ended up in the goblet."

Skeeter gives her a dirty look "I was asking, Harry. You'll get your fame that you, oh so crave like the Black that you are, in a moment."

"Listen, you old cu —" Aurelia cuts herself off. She's got a potty mouth, she always has and always will but that's one word she tries not to use. If she's going to say that word, she'd rather save it for her aunt if she ever meets her, Rita Skeeter no matter how foul doesn't deserve to be called that word by Aurelia. That word has been, and always be reserved for Bellatrix. Hopefully, Aurelia never has to use it.

After a tense pause of Harry staring at her slack-jawed and Skeeter stares at her like she wants to stab Aurelia in the jugular, Aurelia smiles politely and says: "Very well, continue then, Madam Skeeter."

"I didn't," Harry replies after another pause, "Like Blue said, I don't know how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. I didn't put it in there."

"Come now, Harry, there's no need to be scared of getting into trouble. We all know you shouldn't really have entered at all. But don't worry about that. Our readers love a rebel."

"But I didn't enter," Harry repeats. "I don't know who —"

"How do you feel about the tasks ahead? Excited? Nervous?" Skeeter questions.

Aurelia's stomach churns painfully at the mere thought of the tasks, _I'm fucked, totally fucked_.

"I haven't really thought . . . Yeah, nervous, I suppose," Harry replies.

"Champions have died in the past, haven't they? Have you thought about that at all?" Rita asks.

Aurelia feels faint, she already knew this but being reminded of it as a Triwzard champion brings about a whole new sense of fear.

"Well . . . they say it's going to be a lot safer this year," Harry says, which might've been true before their names had been entered. If someone could mess with the Goblet of Fire then they can mess with the tasks just as easily.

"Of course, you've looked death in the face before, haven't you?" Skeeter says, "How would you say that's affected you? Do you think that the trauma in your past might have made you keen to prove yourself? To live up to your name? Do you think that perhaps you were tempted to enter the Triwizard Tournament because —"

"I didn't enter," Harry repeats irritably.

"Can you remember your parents at all," Skeeter asks, talking over him.

"No," Harry says.

"How do you think they'd feel if they knew you were competing in the Triwizard Tournament? Proud? Worried? Angry?"

 _How the fuck is he supposed to know the answer to that_ — Aurelia's distracted by the scratching of the quill so she peers down at it and snorts as she reads: **_Tears fill those startling green eyes as our conversation turns to the parents he can barely remember_**.

Harry looks down as well and exclaims: "I have NOT got tears in my eyes!"

Before Skeeter can say anything, the door of the broom cupboard opens. Dumbledore stands there, looking down at the three of them, squashed into the cupboard; Aurelia's never felt more happy to see Dumbledore before.

"Dumbledore! How are you," Rita cries out delighted, "I hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizards' Conference?"

"Enchantingly nasty," Dumbledore replies, "I particularly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat."

 _Does this woman have any shame_? Aurelia wonders, freeing herself from the confines of the cupboard. Of course, she knows the answer to her question, and that would be: _no. None at all_.

"I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a little old-fashioned, Dumbledore, and that many wizards in the street —"

"I will be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita," Dumbledore, says with a courteous bow and a smile, "But I'm afraid we will have to discuss the matter later. The Weighing of the Wands is about to start, and it cannot take place if two of our champions are hidden in a broom cupboard."

Aurelia and Harry scurry back into the room with the other champions who were all sitting in chairs now. Aurelia sits down on one side of Cedric and Fleur, Harry sits down on Cedric's other side.

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander," Dumbledore says, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions, "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

Mr. Ollivander steps forward into the middle of the room and asks for Fleur's wand first, the blonde sweeps over to him and hands over her wand. He examines the wand thoroughly, he's surprised to find that the core is from a Veela and he comments that he's never made a wand with Veela hair before then he casts a spell. Finally he announces that her wand's in perfect working order. He then turns to Cedric, examining his wand which turns out to be perfectly fine and then he asks for Viktor's wand to examine, it turns out to be in perfect working order.

"Miss. Black."

Aurelia nervously gets up and hands over her wand to the old man.

He inspects the wand carefully "My great-great grandmother, Gelasia was quite fond of this wand, it was her most prized creation. Has it worked well with you, Thestral hair is very unstable?"

Aurelia nods "It's worked wonderfully."

"To this day I still haven't attempted to craft a wand with Thestral hair, my grandmother was far more adventurous than I will ever be." Ollivander remarks, "Cypress wood, twelve inches, it's unyielding I believe . . . It gives others a hard time if they try to use it?"

Aurelia nods "Sometimes, it worked for Cedric when he tried to use it but not for Olivia."

"Mhm, Mr. Diggory's wand core is made of Unicorn hair, my grandmother mentioned that this wand may be fond of other wands with Unicorn hair, it must've sensed Mr. Diggory's wand contained Unicorn hair . . . Do you recall what your friend's wand contains?"

"Kneazle whisker, I think," Aurelia replies.

Ollivander nods as he twirls her wand between his fingers, then he points it firmly saying: "Aberto," causing all the windows to open. He declares that her wand works perfectly and hands it back to her, Aurelia returns to her seat as the Wandmaker calls up Harry for the inspection. Ollivander spends the longest time examining Harry's wand but in the end he declares that Harry's wand is in perfect working condition like the rest of them.

"Thank you all, you may go back to your lessons now — or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end —" Dumbledore says.

Aurelia jumps up, relieved to hear she can go now but than Bagman ruins it by exclaiming: "Photos, Dumbledore, photos! All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"

"Er — yes, let's do those first," Skeeter says although she doesn't sound thrilled by the idea as she stares at Aurelia then at Harry, "And then, perhaps some individual shots."

The photo's take way too long for Aurelia's liking; the only thing that's keeping her from scowling is the thought of the 'Pink Paint Mistake' that happened to Skeeter thanks to her aunts, Bellatrix and Andromeda.

Eventually they're free to go, Aurelia's almost out the door when Skee grabs her arm unexpectedly. Aurelia feels a panic welling up inside her, this can't be good.

"Hold on, Miss. Malfoy, it's been awhile since I've had time to interview my favourite Pureblood family," Skeeter says, her narrowed eyes scanning Aurelia's gnangly body up and down.

Sensing her unease, Skeeter then grins widely at her "I won't keep you long, I only have a few questions to ask you?"

Aurelia narrows her eyes suspiciously, she doesn't like the grin Skeeter is giving her.

"It's been quite a few years since I've last spoken to your family, they were always quite interesting to have a nice interview with."

"I'm pretty sure my family have you banned from even thinking about them," Aurelia huffs.

"I haven't seen you in the streets with them in recent years, not much of a public person, _Bella_ — I mean, Asterope? The last time I spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy was when, hmm, as I recall when Mr. Malfoy had just bought those special albino peacocks. Tell me, how are they doing?"

"The peacocks say fuck you," Aurelia spits out, hair flaming red at Skeeter's not so accidental slip up.

Skeeter's smile drops and Aurelia can tell that her nice facade is done with, she'll get to the real questions, the real reason she stopped Aurelia from leaving. It probably has something to do with Aurelia's obvious disownment from the Malfoy family. It wasn't as public as Andromeda's was so, Skeeter and anybody else at the Daily Prophet must be chomping at the bit to get some details.

Skeeter pulls out a photograph from her crocodile-skin handbag, Aurelia catches a glimpse of the moving polaroid and her heart stops.

 _Oh, shit_.

"How did you get those scars?"

Aurelia swallows thickly, there's no use in lying because that will only make the piece Skeeter's going to write about it worse. As much as she wants to scream at Skeeter that it's none of her fucking business, Aurelia knows that will do nothing to help her.

"A . . . A werewolf. I was n — nine when it happened, I . . . Got lost in the woods near my home," Aurelia replies quietly, tears welling in her eyes at the memory.

"Why do you hide them?"

Aurelia so badly wants to point out that's more than a few questions but she doesn't because this is her chance to save herself from the humiliating, privacy-invading article Skeeter's got planned for her. "I don't like it when people stare at them, it's annoying," Aurelia replies, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.

Skeeter deflates slightly "So people know about them?"

Aurelia nods her head, trying to grin smugly at Skeeter but she probably fails at the smile so she says "Yes, most people think they're _nasty_ but others stare at me with a lot pity so I keep them hidden."

She watches the sly expression slip off Skeeter's face with grim satisfaction. Of course, this doesn't completely erase the chances of Skeeter writing about her scars or mentioning them in the article about the champions but it certainly lowers them. It gives her more time.

"So, if I wrote about the attack in my article to shine a light on just how strong you are, it wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone," Skeeter questions nonchalantly.

Aurelia narrows her eyes "listen here, _you little bug_!"

Skeeter flinches at this, eyes widening slightly as all colour drains from her face. Aurelia snorts, that wasn't even the worse thing I could say to her! She momentarily wonders why Skeeter seems to hate bugs so much and what she could do with that information if it came down to it but Aurelia doesn't ponder it long, she has worse things to worry about.

"I don't know what you're playing at but no! No one would be surprised," Aurelia snarls, for good measure, she wipes the make up off her face, exposing most of her scars. Good Godric, she hopes this is enough to stop her from even mentioning the scars in the article, it probably isn't, knowing what a little bitch Skeeter can be. The worst part: is she's now got to tell her friends about the scars before they're possibly exposed in a fucking article of all things.

"Oh, I see," Skeeter says, sounding positively disinterested in the topic now.

"So you do, indeed," Aurelia snaps, rubbing more of her make-up off, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got food to go eat — _Oh_! By the way, there's something pink — in your hair, it looks like paint."

Skeeter gives a gasp of horror, hands flying up to her hairline and Aurelia gives her a shit-eating grin that reminds her so much of Bellatrix and Andromeda back during her Hogwarts years. Leaving the blonde think that maybe, just maybe she best leave Aurelia alone no matter how badly she wants to get revenge on the Black sisters.

"Bye, bye Madam Skeeter," Aurelia says, smiling sweetly as she tries to ignore the tears blurring her vision. She's not going to let herself cry in front of Rita Skeeter, that's worse than being in this bloody tournament. Which says a lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neville's about to find out Aurelia's scars and why she hates werewolves so much! Buckle up because the next chapter is wild and not just because of the werewolf thing. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 4,385


	18. Tybalt Riddle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which lord voldemort is know by many names, perhaps tim should be one of them, but vegetarian kronos should definitely be one . . . 

****

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN** :

 **016 ||** Tybalt Riddle

* * *

******SHE SHOULD'VE KNOWN** this year was going to go horribly the moment Mae announced the Triwizard Tournament, but Aurelia held onto hope that it wouldn't. And Aurelia should've definitely known everything around her was going to crash and burn when she made the decision to tell her friends about her scars. Why on Earth would she make such a stupid decision? Especially the same year that she knew that the Triwizard Tournament would be at Hogwarts, looking at her situation now, she realises this is all her bloody fault. To begin with, why had she even bothered to keep her werewolf attack in the first place, Aurelia inhales deeply, what a stupid fucking decision.

She doesn't particularly recall making the decision not to tell her friends about her scars, sure she had wanted to hide them away but she had never been against the idea of telling people that she had been attacked by a werewolf. She could've told them without showing her scars but she didn't, it's just the whole first year had passed and she had kinda forgotten to bring up the whole werewolf thing so the next year she just didn't and it never really came out. It hadn't meant to be a secret even if she wasn't particularly thrilled at the prospect of telling her friends she had been a scratching post for a werewolf.

She never went out of her way to hide them from her friends, she had just become accustomed to putting the make-up on that she forget she really didn't need to do it. There's no doubt that she's terrified to tell them as her scars had lost her friends in the past.

( Okay maybe it is a secret but she swears she really never meant for it to be. )

Aurelia breaks down in tears the moment she knows for sure Rita can no longer hear or see her. Aurelia wonders just how exactly she's going to tell her friends; will she even be able to coherently speak about it — _you bet your ass you won't_! She had royally fucked up. She tells herself that she had a right to hide this from everyone, she lost friends because of them, these scars ruined her, damaged her, made her dirty. She had a right. But, another part of her says she's in the wrong. What she did is truly horrible.

Mae always encouraged her to wear the scars like a badge of a honour and Aurelia supposes she had tried, she really did, because Mae had asked but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She tried so hard to be okay with them but it was so hard and she'd give herself headaches trying to hide them with her Metamorphmagus abilities. Hiding them had been so hard it gave her nosebleeds, which is why Mae decided to get her the make-up even though she really didn't want to. In the end, Mae decided that Aurelia's health and comfort came first.

She should've never kept this from them but she didn't want to lose them like she had lost, Blaise, Daphne, and Millicent.

Aurelia didn't want them to see her as dirty too but now she has no choice but to let them. She'll be damned if Skeeter's the one who lets it out, twisting around the story to make it worse. Stalking down the corridor with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, Aurelia can feel eyes on her. She's not sure if it's because of the scars, or the tears, or both. Either way she hates it. She hates Skeeter. She's not ready to tell them now. She's not — she's got too.

Neville's got Potions, so he should be heading up from his lessons now as classes had just let out a few minutes ago. Aurelia heads to the dungeons, hoping to catch him before he gets to the Great Hall. She wants to tell Neville first because she's already got a gist on how he's going to react, her other friends are unknown territory. Just thinking of what their reactions might be is enough to reduce her to a quivering mess.

Neville had just climbed up the stairs from the dungeons when Aurelia shoves him into the nearest broom cupboard. He squeaks out in fear, not realising it's her until she lets out a quiet sob. Neville looks at her in concern and confusion, he can't see her face as she's looking at the ground but even if she had been looking at him he doubts he'd be able to see her well as it's rather dark in there.

"Ari, what's wrong," He asks worriedly.

"Sk — sk — Skeeter," She sobs, "She — she knows!"

Neville doesn't know exactly what Skeeter knows but when Skeeter knows something it's never good. He frowns, Skeeter was known for, as Aurelia says, getting the deep shit on everyone. No one knows how she does it, she just does. Skeeter's the worst, his gran thinks that she's rubbish.

"What does she know, Ari," He asks softly, it must be something to do with her aunt, that's only thing Neville can think that would get a reaction like this out of Aurelia. Of course, most people know about her aunt so would it really get a reaction like this?

"She know — she knows that I'm dirty," Aurelia sobs, her entire body shakes with nerves. 

"What? How — you're not dirty! What does that even mean?!"

Aurelia takes a deep breath but ends up choking on it.

"Ari, calm down . . . Breathe, okay . . . Just breathe," Neville tells her softly, grabbing her shoulders gently.

"She knows about the werewolf," Aurelia whispers, "She knows about the werewolf and now I — I — I have to tell everyone how dirty — how nasty — how ugly — tainted I am be — before she does."

"What are you talking about, Ari," He asks, not at all thrilled by the way she's belittling herself but he's knows it'll do no good to stop her at this moment, she's hysterical.

"The werewolf! That woman! She — she was part of Greyback's p — p — pack before my dad killed her."

"Ari, it's not your fault — what your dad did to her —"

"She deserved it," Aurelia says sharply, surprising him.

That's not like her, Neville thinks, maybe she does hate werewolves.

Aurelia breathes heavily, trying her best to keep that woman's voice from invading her mind, she squeezes her eyes shut tightly. Go away, go away, go away. She remembers that night so vividly. She remembers the event that caused her to leave the manor in the first place just as well. Aurelia shudders.

"You know that werewolves can't help it, Aurelia," Neville says almost sternly and Aurelia flinches at the use of the full name. He almost never uses any of her full names, it's either Ari or on occasion Aster.

"I know that," Aurelia bites out through grinding teeth, she hates herself.

This isn't going the way she had thought it would. Why isn't it, what had changed, what had went wrong? She looks up and although Neville can't see her face properly, he knows something's different. "But she chose to come find me that night. She chose to beckon me closer knowing that any moment she was going to lose control! She chose to ruin me," Aurelia exclaims angrily.

Aurelia had been so very stupid but she had thought that woman was hurt — Aurelia just wanted to help, she just wanted to — then she started to transform and she reached out, slashing Aurelia's face. Aurelia had fallen to her knees and when she got up, the woman was completely transformed, her snout right in Aurelia's face, ready to take a bite — so Aurelia punched it and then the werewolf slashed her chest, her stomach — _it hurt so bad_ — Aurelia fell down again, screaming and then the werewolf tried to — _there was a bright green light and Mae was screaming —_

"You're a werewolf," Neville breathes out, how had he not noticed her missing every full moon, sure he had noticed it once or twice but —

"NO," Aurelia cries out, gripping his robes tightly, afraid that he'll leave her, "No, she — she didn't g — get to. She didn't bite me, my d — d — dad killed her before she could. I am not a werewolf." _don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave_.

Neville's eyebrows furrow together in confusion, if she's not a werewolf then why is she making such a big deal about this?

Aurelia rubs aggressively her scars, _stupid, stupid, stupid_ — "Skeeter doesn't know all the details, she just knows about the scars and the werewolf. She doesn't know about all the work that went into hidin' it. My dad killed someone and he had to hide that and as far as he was concerned, I was gonna die soon too — there was so much blood." — so much. Aurelia can almost feel it; hot and sticky, getting in her eyes and sticking in her hair. It hurt so very much.

"Blood from what? If you weren't bit then why were you bleeding?"

On most days Aurelia's always patient with Neville despite not being a very patient person. Today's an exception.

"Werewolves have claws," Aurelia snaps, though she doesn't mean to she's just so angry. Angry at Skeeter, _that spying little bitch_! How had she even gotten the picture? She'd had to of been in a tree to have taken it, Aurelia doesn't remember seeing her and trust Aurelia, she would've remembered seeing Rita Skeeter there.

It clicks. Neville's eyes widen, the scars she had shown him are real! But, why hadn't she just told him then? Why had she hid them at all?

Aurelia rubs at her scars, harder. "She got me . . . She got — twice. She got me twice. One — once in my face and — and then in — in my stomach." Aurelia stammers, gripping his robes tighter as she sobs, " I didn't — I don't know how Skeeter got a picture of my scars, I — she won't be able find anythin' else, there's no record of this happenin' anywhere. My dad went through great lengths to cover it up, he buried the werewolf's body somewhere on our property and they wouldn't take me to St. Mungo's so Mae had to heal me the Muggle way. My parents — I — think they kinda wanted me to succumb to my injuries. The second hit, it was rather bad. I almost bled out and then my dad woulda probably buried my body on the property too," Aurelia says quickly.

Her nails dig into the flesh of her cheek, she hates her scars, she wants them to go away. Neville reaches up and pulls Aurelia's hand away from her face, worried that she'd hurt herself if he didn't. As he looks closer, he can sort of see her scars, Neville purses his lips to hold back a gasp of horror, that would probably make things worse.

"Why didn't you tell me," Neville asks, _or anyone for that matter_?

Aurelia scowls her lower lip, jutting out "No one would've wanted to be my friend."

"I would," Neville says indignantly.

Aurelia laughs dryly "Yeah, right! As if you'd want to be friends with me and my ugly, nasty scars!"

"They're not ugly!"

Aurelia snorts "You said they were nasty!"

Neville lets out a quiet little "Oh." as Aurelia bursts into tears.

"Ari," Neville says softly as he hesitantly places a hand on her cheek, "I didn't mean it like that! I sup — suppose that it — it sound — sounds like I did but I swear I — I didn't!"

Her eyebrows furrow together "How'd you mean it then?"

"I meant 'nasty' as in — in they looked painful! I don't think they're ugly! I'd never think you're ugly!"

"Really?"

"Really," Neville says, brushing his thumb over one of her scars, "They're not ugly, they change nothing about how I see you. You're still beautiful!"

Her breath catches in her throat, the urge to kiss the bloody hell out of him returns stronger than ever and she lowers her face to do so. She ends up kissing the corner of his mouth, chickening out of actually kissing him at the last second. Aurelia feels his dimple grow under her lips and she thinks that the fact that he's smiling because she almost kissed him is much better than actually kissing him. The little giggle that escapes his lips next confirms it. Letting go of Neville's robes, Aurelia straightens herself out, her heart races rapidly. Bot of them are blushing messes but that fact is hidden by the darkness of the cupboard.

"So they don't bug you," Aurelia questions after a moment, her giddiness melting back into nervousness, "I mean, that's o — okay if they do, they bugged my par — parents, they bug — bugged my old friends they b — b — bug me. So, it — it's okay if you don't like them, just please do — don't leave me."

"Aurelia, they don't bug me. They're scars, they don't change who you are to me," Neville says, absentmindedly stroking her marred cheek.

"You won't leave me," She whispers.

"Never," He replies.

Aurelia feels so relieved.

Neville pulls her into a tight hug "I — I'll never leave you."

"Th — th — thank you," Aurelia whispers, tears threatening to spill once more. Oh, Merlin, how is she going to handle telling all her other friends?

* * *

* * *

**SHE HANDLES TELLING** her other friends about her scars very badly. So badly, in fact, Neville's got to do it for her. Normally, Neville's not the one to speak to groups of people, especially Aurelia's closest friends. And he mostly means, Olivia as she intimidates the bloody hell out of him. But, he does it, albeit, there's a lot of stuttering involved. However, Neville's nervous stuttering is far more coherent than Aurelia's stressed blubbering.

Her friends handle it well; far better than her old friends had and she's thankful for that. By the end of this whole ordeal, she's a little less ashamed of her scars but she still can't wait to go back to covering them up, people will stare at her far less. She doesn't like it when people stare at her scars. She can't hide them just yet, she's got to give it a few weeks. At least until the first task has come and gone — if she survives it, that is. The longer she keeps her scars visible the less likely it is for Skeeter to write an article about them. Aurelia managed to escape the first article with nothing more than two sentences and a misspelt name. No one paid much attention to it, except Seamus, of course, he can't get over it.

"I still can't get over this," Seamus squeals with laughter, he sounds almost incoherent to Aurelia and Neville.

A copy of the Daily Prophet is clutched tightly in his grasp "Ooh! This is by far the best thing I've ever read, it bloody beats my theories — Aurora Malfoy, the possible lovechild of Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Le — le — Lestrange has — Merlin!"

Aurelia rolls her eyes, usually she loses her shit when someone says she's Bellatrix's daughter but this time, she doesn't — it annoys the fuck out of her but it makes her laugh more than anything. She knows this one can't be true, there's no possibility of that happening ever; Aurelia can just imagine her father sitting in his office, petting his stupid albino peafowl as he reads the Daily Prophet only to gag when he reads that Skeeter's insinuated that he shagged his sister-in-law.

This isn't plausible in the slightest, although she supposes she looks like she could be, her dad would never cheat on her mum, they genuinely love each other. And, he certainly wouldn't have shagged Bellatrix out all of the women he knows. Aurelia has heard stories, she's got blurry memories and all her dad and aunt had done was go at each other's throats. Although, her dad did speak of Bellatrix fondly, but he only ever saw her as an annoying older sister.

This 'theory' is complete bullshit. Seamus' theories, as irritating as they are, have always been far more plausible than the one Skeeter's came up with. He theorises Bellatrix is her real mum and as much as Aurelia loathes it, she knows there's a wee possibility it could be true. Seamus also theorises that she's Sirius Black's daughter, Aurelia thinks it's plausible but less likely than the Bellatrix theory. If she had been Sirius' daughter, she would've ended up in Auntie Wally's care and not the Malfoys'.

Aurelia shudders at the thought of being that woman's daughter, it's bad enough she's my aunt! She shakes her head, no. _You know who you are: Asterope Aurlia Malfoy, the daughter of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy though sometimes you wish you were the daughter of Maeve Macleod. That'd be nice. But you are not Bellatrix's daughter nor are you Sirius' daughter. Sirius wouldn't be too bad as a father but, still . . . That's not who you are._

"I've got to get to the library," Aurelia announces, she had been planning to go there earlier but she got distracted by Neville, Seamus, and Dean — mostly Neville.

Seamus groans playfully "But we were just about to discuss the juicy details about your father's lovely aff — affair with B — B — Bell —" the rest of his sentence becomes an incoherent mess as he bursts into a fit of giggles.

Aurelia finds herself growing annoyed, not with Seamus but herself. Why had she thought about that? He had barely brought his theories up, _yet you started overthinking. Why do I always do this to myself_? She slings the strap of her bag over her shoulder and leaves the Gryffindor Common Room she had been invited into earlier this afternoon, Neville trails behind behind her, asking if he can come with her.

"I've got to go to the restricted section," Aurelia tells him, checking her bag to make sure she's brought her Invisibility Cloak with her.

"Why," Neville wonders nervously, it's not unusual for her to go into the restricted section but he doesn't like it, he's always worried that she'll get caught.

"To look for spells for the first task," She replies.

"I th — th — thought they didn't give you any clues."

"Oh, they didn't but Ginny did. Not that she realises it. She mentioned that her older brothers, Bill and Charlie will be around this year," Aurelia says, a grin stretching across her face, "Which is odd because neither of them have really been 'round since they graduated — save Charlie but that was for the dragon fiasco. So, I think them being here has somethin' to do with the tournament."

Neville nods, bloody hell she's smart.

"Although I could be wrong, maybe they're just here to watch the tournament or maybe they're here for the other tasks but it's the only thing I've got to go on. Anyway, Bill's into Curse-Breaking and all that jazz, Charlie's real into dragons — much to Nym's dismay but she's over that now or so she says — and I think the first task or the other two could be based on those things."

Aurelia takes a deep breath from explaining then continues "The first task I believe is supposed to test one's daring but I could be wrong, I was still screaming internally when they started talking about the task so I didn't exactly hear properly. Anyway, Curse-Breaking to me, at least, when compared to dragons doesn't really test one's daring. So, I'm thinking it's going to be dragons for the first task."

Neville inhales sharply "Dragons?!"

"More than likely. But, don't worry, Plant Boy. I could be wrong, after all they didn't give us any clues, this is just my theory and I could be very wrong. But, it's better to be prepared for something than nothing at all."

"I suppose but why do you have to go to the restricted section to do that?"

"They'll have stronger spells there, especially for Curse-Breaking." Aurelia replies, "You don't really have to come with me, Nev."

"I know," He says as his eyes dart around nervously as they approach the library, "But — but, I want to help."

Aurelia grins as she blushes "Oh okay, th — thanks."

She glances around to make sure no one's looking at them as she pulls her Invisibility Cloak out of her bag and over herself and Neville. Getting into the restricted section is smooth sailing although Neville's still nervous they'll get caught. He's never been in the restricted section but he knows about it thanks to Aurelia's stories, she's been here about five or so times to read through some history books. He didn't ever think that he'd go there but Aurelia needs help and he'll do anything to help her. Neville knows he's not the most useful person but at least he's trying and at least he's good at being supportive.

"Okay," Aurelia whispers, drawing him from his thoughts, "The books on this shelf seem to be about Curse-Breaking. We'll start with these."

"I thought you were certain it was going to be dragon, wouldn't you rather look for spells to fight against a dragon or dragons — I can do that!"

"Thanks, but I've already got a spell for the dragon, I just need to take out some books — ones in the non-restricted section to cover my tracks. This is just in case the task has something to do with Curse-Breaking," Aurelia whispers.

"Why do you you need to cover your tracks," Neville whispers back.

"The spell I'm going to use is of my creation," Aurelia replies.

Neville nods, some spells she doesn't mind sharing with people and others would have to be pried out of her cold, dead hands before she even mentioned them. Aurelia likes to keep her spells on the down-low, even some of the spells in her book are unknown to Neville; he has seen more than most people though. He's sure she'd tell him, out of all people if he asked, but he'd much rather her come to him about it. Whatever the spell may be, if she's comfortable then she'll come to him.

She pulls three books from their shelves and places them on the table in front of them, opening on the books and searching through it. Neville follows suit with another one of the books, he's not sure what to look for as he knows nothing about Curse-Breaking but he wants to help, he wants to be useful to Aurelia.

Opening the book he's greeted by the horrible sight of spilled ink and dried blood. "Oh," Neville whimpers, going pale.

Aurelia glances at him to see what's wrong and her brown eyes land on the index page of the book and they go wide "Oh, now that's disturbing." It's not the worst thing she's seen in the restricted section and the sarcastic comment slips from her lips with ease until she spot the name scratched into the yellowed page. It's not the only name on there, there's others that are hard to make out because of the dried blood and spilled ink but, this name sticks out as it's scrawled across the page with very little spilled ink and dried blood in its path. _Tybalt Riddle_.

She's disturbed now. _Tybalt Riddle_. Her stomach twists painfully. _Poor Tybalt Riddle_.

One out of six children born to Voldemort — Or rather, at the time Tybalt would've been born, Tom — _Tim_? Aurelia's not sure exacty what his first name is, it's one of those two — Riddle. The eldest of the children, born to his very estranged and very deceased wife, Esrom Riddle. Tybalt had been different from the other six. He had made it, he had been born. Tybalt had lived a month, he got to know his mother's love before he was killed by his father's resentment and insecurity.

Tybalt Riddle became a horror story amongst the Death-Eaters in her parents circle, Voldemort had lost several supporters for the slaughter of his own son — he then slaughtered those swayed supporters. _Poor wee Tybalt_.

"Ari," Neville whispers, nudging her gently as she stares at the book and breathes rapidly. One minute she had made a sarcastic comment about it the next she's staring at it like it's the most horrifying thing in the world — _oh no! What if it's cursed_! "What is — is it?"

He hope it's not cursed and it doesn't seem to be as Aurelia breaks from her trance-like state and points at the the clearest and largest name in the book.

"That's the son of Voldemort."

Neville barely bites back a yelp, he's not sure what scares him most, the use of You-Know-Who's real name or the fact he apparently had a kid. Neville should be used to Aurelia's use of his name, she does it all the time. She's scared of You-Know-Who just like everyone else but she uses the name with ease, he thinks it's because she's come to view his real name as a curse word, it's certainly treated like one and Aurelia's got a nasty but very cute habit — _have you heard her say the 'f' word, it sounds like she's saying 'fook' and that is the cutest thing ever_! — of using every curse word imaginable. To her, at least he thinks, You-Know-Who's real name is no different than the 'f' word.

"Wh — what?"

"His son, the ministry knows about him as there was a body. He had many other children, six known to the Death-Eaters. Another one, is also known to the Ministry but there's no body for her, so they're not to sure about that one as the only source is from the distraught and deranged mother, Callisto — they're all dead," Aurelia explains.

She feels sick. Voldemort had slaughtered six of his own children without a hint of regret. Five which had never made it out of the womb, three of which were never named.

"All six of them?"

Aurelia nods, shivering in fear. Voldemort was a monster and even if she had agreed with the whole 'Purebloods above All! Down with the Muggles!' thing he had promoted, she would still think this. He killed his own children. "He killed them all."

"What? Why?"

Aurelia frowns. Voldemort may have been the darkest wizard of all time but no one expected him to kill his own bloody children.

She's known about his children for years, Tybalt, Alaric, and Cressida, and the three that had never been named. Tybalt had struck a chord in her and he always will. It's not like the guy had to be father of the year. He didn't have to go and kill the baby in his mother's arms as she pleaded with him not to kill wee Tybalt. There's a reason he killed Tybalt, a reason he killed all his children. A reason Aurelia can't understand even years later. The reason is horrifying and Aurelia's surprised she's yet to burst into tears just thinking about it.

"You're familiar with Greek Mythology," Aurelia asks and to her surprise, Neville nods his head quickly.

"Yeah, my gran's got a lot of books about it — I think they belong to my dad or maybe my mum — what's that got to do with, well . . . That?"

"Kronos . . . Y'know the Titan who —"

Neville's nose crinkled in disgust "Yeah, didn't he eat h —"

"Yes! But, no! It's not what you're thinking . . . He didn't eat them . . . He's like a vegetarian Kronos."

Neville opens his mouth to say something but promptly shuts it, reminding himself that this isn't the weirdest thing he's heard her say.

"He killed them for the same reason Kronos ate his children. Voldemort was afraid that they'd be more powerful than him, he was afraid they'd overthrow him. He killed five of them before they were even born, Tybalt was the only one who got to see the sun. He got to learn his mother's warm embrace, he got to live until his father met him and then there was a green light and Tybalt was no more. Do you know how monstrous that is. Voldemort killed his first-born son in his wife's arms!"

"You-Know-Who had a wife," Neville whispers loudly in disbelief — _and yet, you can't even tell a girl you like her_!

Aurelia laughs mirthlessly "Their marriage was worse than Aunt Bellatrix and Uncle Rodolphus' which is saying something because their marriage is a disaster, Neville, the worst disaster you can ever imagine. I highly doubt they were in love, the marriage was probably a way for Voldemort to claim Esrom, she was useful to him she was a famed seer. Esrom Trelawney, or as most people know her, Riddle. She was the ex-Divinations professor here. She's dead too, Voldemort killed her shortly before he died or he had her killed. I'm not sure which is true. You know, Tybalt would've been older than my aunt, if he was alive. He didn't deserve to die."

"Merlin," Neville breathes out, "How do you know all that?"

"Eavesdropping," Aurelia replies. "When our parents booted us out of the room to have their gossip time, Draco and his friends would have me sneak into the room to spy on them because I was the least likely to be caught or noticed."

"Oh."

"Did you know, Ellie almost had a half-sister. It might've been his full sister but they never really got to know . . . Callisto Burke — Ellie's biological mum, had been the youngest Death-Eater, she was still in Hogwarts when she got the Dark Mark, in her sixth year and she was still in Hogwarts when she became pregnant the first time. There had been the possibility that it could've been Voldemort's but it was more than likely Regulus' child, she was betrothed to him. However, Voldemort wasn't going to take that chance and five-months in the pregnancy he killed the child. It destroyed Callisto, she had gotten so attached to the unborn child, she had found out it was going to be a girl and she picked out a name — Cressida Calypso, and she was so happy. She was thriving. Her and Regulus were going to be a happy family and then Voldemort tore it all away from her because there was a chance she was his."

Neville stares at Aurelia horrified.

Aurelia felt tears slipping down her cheeks, it wasn't fair. Because of this, Callisto was hardly fit to raise Ellie, she was still reeling from the loss of Cressida when Ellie came along.

"She was never the same after he got rid of Cressida. I mean, she was just a child herself. And . . . She went, well, bonkers, she became paranoid but refused to stray from Voldemort's side. When Ellie came around, she got worse. Callisto worried that he'd kill Ellie even though there was no chance that he was Voldemort's kid. So she tried to give him the Dark-Mark to prove her loyalty to Voldemort and kinda protect Ellie in a very twisted way. She never got to finish it though because . . . Because well, Aunt Bellatrix stopped her and accidentally got Callisto captured by the ministry by doing so."

Aurelia wipes angry tears from her face, how could someone kill their own children? She looks at Tybalt's name and an overwhelming sadness grows inside her.

She remembers hiding behind the curtains in her parents' sitting room, listening to the gossip to tell her friends about later. She remember that it was the anniversary of Tybalt's death, Mrs. Parkinson had been recounting the tale very dramatically and woefully and by the end of it, Aurelia had burst into fearful hysterics, alerting the adults she had been in the room the entire time. She remembers running to her father and clinging to him as she begged him not to kill her if she got better at magic than he was. He hadn't even been mad that she had eavesdropped.

Aurelia sniffles "It's not fair — they still had room to grow, they never got a chance — they could've turned out good."

Neville looks at her surprised. She had been more emotional since being entered in the Triwizard Tournament but he couldn't understand why she's crying over You-Know-Who's children — that's harsh. Neville pauses, starting to understand why it upsets Aurelia, they were just children. Children who never got a chance to grow. It is rather unfair.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"I'm hungry," Aurelia states, desperate to change the subject.

Neville nods "Alright, let's get some lun — lunch. We can do this some other time and, uh, maybe avoid this book in the future."

* * *

* * *

**HOURS LATER A** bad feeling settles in the pit of her stomach but this time it's not the thought of dead babies that causes it; it's a letter from her Aunt Lyra. A letter requesting to meet her at her office before dinner. She sent a similar letter to Ellie, the two walk to her office together. Even with Ellie's company, her nerves aren't soothed because unlike her, Lyra actually treats Ellie decently. Lyra's still kind of bitch to him — but then again, being a bitch is in Lyra's nature. She only likes Ellie because he's Regulus' son.

"What do you think she wants from us," Aurelia wonders, glancing at Ellie who's trying hard to control his frizzy, black curls.

"She probably finally decided to kill you and she invited me along to help hide your body," Ellie replies, pulling his hair into a very messy bun that looks more like a painful knot than anything.

Aurelia gives him a dirty look but jokes along with him as she retorts: "Yes, she invited you along to help hide my body that she could easily burn to a crisp or turn into an unsuspecting object with a flick of her wand."

Ellie laughs "She'd definitely burn your body, that sounds more dramatic. More like Lyra."

Few words are exchanged with her aunt as the bitter blonde hands her three letters and a rectangular package. Two of the letters are from Mae and Remus — still, Aurelia doesn't understand why, he's involved, the third letters is from her Aunt Andromeda. Then she hands Ellie a letter, she tries to speak with Ellie but he drops the conversation quickly for Aurelia's sake and then the two are headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Salazar's socks," Ellie snickers, "Ma — Bellatrix would've kicked her bloody ass if she saw Lyra looking at me like that."

"Did you just call Bellatrix 'ma'," Aurelia asks, it's not the first time she's heard Ellie call her that but it's been awhile since she has and it catches her off guard.

Ellie nods, blushing as he frowns "Yeah, haven't heard me do that in awhile, huh?"

It had been years since she had heard Ellie call her aunt that, he used to do it all the time when he was younger. The first time she had met Ellie, he had convinced her and Draco that he was Bellatrix's son. He had seen a few of her pictures in Malfoy manor and had declared her his 'ma'. Her and Draco had been thrilled by this, it had meant that they had a cousin they both could play with.

When wee Ellie had left that afternoon, her mum had explained to them that Ellie was probably a Muggle that Bellatrix had taken him from some Muggle family she had dealt with during the first Wizarding War since they could no longer care for him. In other words, their mum had tried to explain to them their aunt had brutally murdered a Muggle couple and surprisingly couldn't bring herself to murder their infant son so she took him and gave him to Mae without actually saying their aunt had brutally murdered people.

Then Ellie got a little older and his hair grew out and their parents began to whisper that he might be Regulus and Callisto's son. Her parents didn't know for sure as Callisto had kept Ellie to herself, Regulus, and Bellatrix, still traumatised from her previous one.

"I miss her — I miss them. Callisto wasn't a bad mother before the mark but she didn't — couldn't love me wholly. She couldn't love me like they did. They gave me attention, they gave me the care Callisto couldn't give me. Mum and Ma — when she was around — they took great care of me, they made sure I was talked to, they made sure I was well-fed, they made sure I was warm. They could do that consistently unlike Callisto," Ellie explains, sounding forlorn.

"Did Bellatrix love Mae," Aurelia bursts out, a sudden urge to know if her theory is — was true.

Ellie grins slightly "Took you long enough! I know Mum didn't exactly tell you but she wasn't subtle about it either — have you seen her room? It's like eighty percent Bellatrix pictures, paintings, and drawing. She was either waiting for you to figure it out or she already thought you knew because of Cissy. Mum doesn't like talking about it as she misses Ma terribly. But, it wasn't a secret that was kept from you. Of course, not a lot of people know as it's taboo, Mum's a Squib and Ma's a Pureblood, star-crossed lovers if you ask me so they didn't flaunt it but there were people that knew and didn't do anything, I think they were scared of Ma."

"That's so weird, I always thought it was odd that —"

"Don't you mean: strange?"

"Shut the fuck up, Elias Sirius Black!"

"Don't fucking call me, Elias, that's a shit name," Ellie hisses angrily, his face turns bright red.

"Don't make shitty puns then," Aurelia hisses right back, "Anyway! I always thought it was weird that Bellatrix gave Mae a bloody castle and I thought maybe Bellatrix loved her but I never that it'd actually be true!"

"You'll be even more surprised to learn Mum loved her back."

Aurelia chokes on her own spit "What? No! Mum — Mae could do so much better than her!"

Ellie laughs "Yes, they loved each other."

Mae loved Bellatrix back? _Well, holy shit, I was not expecting that_!

Her shock turns to confusion rather quickly, if Aunt Bellatrix loved Mae — a Squib! — why had she joined the Death-Eaters? It doesn't make sense.

"Well, this has been an exceptional bonding moment but I do believe dinner is calling me, specifically the Yorkshire Pudding so — tootles!" He gives her a rough pat on the back, grinning slyly as he departs.

He leaves her hanging as he starts to walk away and, the little shit that he is, knows it; Aurelia bets he's enjoying that.

She rolls her eyes but all she can think is: _holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit_!

"No, hang on," Aurelia exclaims, speeding after him, "You can't leave me hanging! You have to tell me more!"

"There's not much more to tell, ask mum. She'll tell you all about it," Ellie replies in an amused tone, "Just whatever you do, don't say anything to Mrs. Weasley. That's mum's only rule, she can't know about Mae and Bellatrix or else she throw a fit and cut us all off."

Holy shit, her theory was true, and it wasn't unrequited, Aurelia found it almost sweet. If only her aunt hadn't loved the Dark Lord more.

"Say, Ellie, hypothetically speaking, that would mean Mae would be okay with me being bisexual," Aurelia asks uncertainly, "Hypothetically speaking only, I'm definitely not actually bisexual, I don't like anyone like that."

_Liar, you like Neville_ , Her brain hisses at her and she quickly corrects herself, _you mean you like Noelle. But, nobody needs to know that._

Ellie slows down "We already know, well not ma because she's definitely in Azkaban. Totally, completely locked up with no way out. But, I know and mum knows, you liked Pansy, you liked Ginny, you like Neville, you like that weird Durmstrang girl that gives Fred and Dagny bad vibes. You're a hopeless romantic disaster, we all know."

"I said hypothetically speaking," Aurelia says defensively, "Never said I was, Ellie, context is important!"

"Says the dumb bitch who ignores context half the time and ends up panicking cause you completely missed it," Ellie says teasingly and he throws his arm around Aurelia's shoulder, "Whatever, my dear sweet sister, we already know but when you're ready to not be hypothetical, and totally take your time on that if you need too, we'll all be ready to know again."

"You're a prat," Aurelia huffs, squirming in his grasp.

Ellie smiles wide "I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Voldemort had children,,, I bet that makes you uncomfortable . . . They're all dead because Voldemort (father of the year, everyone!!!) is straight up a Vegetarian Kronos,,, Anyway, Voldy's very dead children will play a crucial role in later on in the story I briefly rewrote Make Them Gold as a AU where the children lived and they were all boys but it didn't feel the same so it's back to them being dead and way more important. ALSO in this household we stan Maetrix ( Bellatrix x Mae ) because they are the best also I'm missing their book so hard right now and it's taking everything in me not to publish it again! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 6,949


	19. It's Not A Fashion Statement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which aurelia black realises that she most definitely has to fight a dragon and whoever put her name in the goblet most definitely has a death wish for her . . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please read the note at the end of the chapter it's very important!

****

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN** :

 **017 ||** It's Not A Fashion Statement

* * *

" **I HATE BOYS** ," Ginny says simply as she plops down in between Neville and Aurelia who are seated in front of the Gryffindor Common Room's fire.

"Ow," Neville says, "I'm right here?"

Ginny laughs "Oh, Neville, you're not a boy, you're an angel. But, my brother on the other hand is very much a boy and I hate that, he's dumb."

"Which brother," Neville and Aurelia ask at once, they both blush at this and look away from each other.

"Ron," Ginny groans, "He and Harry are fighting because he's a jealous twat. Thinks Harry put his name in the Goblet of Fire for the glory, and he's been pouting all about the castle because of it. Harry's even worse, I don't understand it."

"Ah, so that's why Ron hasn't been talking to me at all," Aurelia says, "Not that we normally talk all the time . . . Aye, makes sense."

"Makes sense? It makes none to me," Ginny says, rolling her eyes.

"Our dorm is awkward," Neville pipes in.

"Aye, I'll bet," Aurelia says, shifting her legs which had fallen asleep. A consequence for sitting on them for so long.

"And not only that," Ginny continues to rant, "George has been upset because Ellie as been upset and he doesn't know why and instead of asking Ellie about it, he's trying to get me to ask you about it as if you don't have enough to deal with! Boys are so dumb!"

"He's missing his mums," Aurelia says, "I'm not really sure why as he didn't say anything but he's been overly affectionate with me so he's definitely upset. I miss Mae too but he's a mama's boy — don't you dare think about telling him I said that!"

Ginny laughs and then she rolls her eyes "It's so simple, I don't understand why George couldn't just ask Ellie himself."

"Who knows," Aurelia replies, smiling slightly as she turns her body and props her arms on Ginny's shoulder, "Ellie's brain is a wild place and he's so in-sync with George half the times, I have reason to believe George's mind would be no different."

"Boys are dumb," Ginny repeats, scowling as she looks at the fire.

Neville looks at Ginny and raises an eyebrow, but he's smiling so he's not actually offended. If anything, he kind of agrees with her, most boys are dumb, including himself at times. Although, he likes to tell himself he's never usually as dumb as other boys.

"Aye," Aurelia agrees, "Except you, Plant Boy, you're an exception, probably the only exception. But, you do have to admit they have it so easy in this world."

There's a pause and Aurelia adds "Specifically the Pureblood world, Merlin's beard! Do you know how many times I heard people compliment my brother and then look at me and critique me for pretty much the same bloody thing? Fuckin' double standards all because my hips ain't wide enough. Bullshit."

Neville and Ginny share a look as Aurelia becomes bitter.

"Well, she does have a point," Neville says simply.

"Hips aren't wide enough? What does that have to do with anything," Ginny says, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"For child-bearing," Aurelia says dryly.

"Very important to Pureblood Women," Neville says, his tone could never reach the level of dryness that Aurelia has but Ginny thinks this is the closest she's ever heard Neville be bitter about something.

"Woah," Ginny says with disgust, "That's dumb, who says that to someone our age?"

"I was six the first time I heard it," Aurelia says with a sickly sweet smile, "Mr. Nott said it to me when he and my parents were making future wedding plans for me and Theo."

"You're engaged to Theodore Nott," Neville exclaims as he chokes on his spit.

"You were six and your parents were picking out who you were going to marry," Ginny cries, aghast, "What the bloody fuck?!"

"Well, I'm not anymore, you know I disowned myself and my parents agreed to make it official, now I'm a wee bit of a Blood-Traitor so no Pureblood Man wants their son to marry, er —" Aurelia gestures to her tiny twig of a body, "— _this_."

"Shut up," Ginny say, "You're cute as fuck!"

Aurelia blushes and Ginny kicks Neville's shin.

"Isn't she cute as fuck, Neville, tell her that she's cute as fuck!"

Neville turns as red as the couch's fabric as he struggles to look anywhere but Ginny and Aurelia. 

"He doesn't have to," Aurelia mumbles, her palms grow sweaty as she shakes her head at Ginny.

"She's cute as fuck," Neville says, it comes out rushed and he stammers over the curse word. He keeps his eyes locked on the ceiling as Ginny lets out a victorious shriek.

Aurelia's cheeks are burning and she thinks maybe she's sitting too close to the fire, her heart hammers in her chest.

"She is cute as fuck," Ginny says loudly, reaching over and squeezing Aurelia's chin and giving it a little shake, "And she should never forget it, you were my awakening. Godric bless you."

Aurelia reaches over and squeezes Ginny's chin in a gentle manner as she looks Ginny dead in the eyes and says "I would perish for you."

"And I you," Ginny says seriously.

"I'm feeling a little left out here," Neville says jokingly, not expecting both girls to pile onto him.

Neville cries out, startled, as Ginny roughly cups his cheeks. Aurelia presses her face into his left cheek, overtop of Ginny's hand and wraps her one arm around his head, fingers threading through his light brown curls.

Both the girls say "We would perish for you too," at the same time in a very serious tone.

There's a pause, then the three break away as they burst into giggles. They quickly calm themselves as they notice they're disturbing the other Gryffindors in the common room, Ginny takes the spot on Neville's right while Aurelia takes the spot on his left which was where she was sitting before Ginny joined them. Aurelia had been practicing some curse-breakers and some dragon handling spells, she still hadn't figured out what the first task would be about. But, it was better to know both than know none at all. Neville had been working on a Potions Essay with Aurelia's occasional help.

"You got any homework, Gin," Aurelia asks conversationally, "You can join us, if you want."

"Nah, I just have a few questions about Care for Magical Creatures but Charlie can help me when I see him at Hogsmeade this weekend. He's gonna be down for the next little while," Ginny says putting emphasis on how Charlie was here.

However, Aurelia's eyes widen at the mention of Hogsmeade "Shit, I have to cancel that thing with Viktor! Mae and Professor Lupin are coming to visit me, fuck!"

"Blue," Ginny says slowly, "Charlie's here."

"Aye, I got that but I promised Viktor that I would show him Butterbeer but then I got letters from Mae and Lupin saying that they're going to visit me this weekend since it's a Hogsmeade weekend and I think Noelle said something wanting to meet up but I can't remember and — and now I have to fight a dragon for the first task! Usually the — the first task is smaller than that, I've read the books, they start out small not — not with dragons! I don't like Dragons they're like — like snakes but with wings and legs and that's scary, snakes are scary!"

Aurelia inhales sharply, her heart pounding in her chest as she grows hysterical not for the first time since she's been chosen for the Triwizard Tournament but this is the first time she's done it in public. When she had told her friends she had a least some privacy. Tears burn her green eyes as she struggles to breathe, Neville and Ginny share an alarmed look.

Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor in the same year as Aurelia and Neville, comes and plops down on the armchair across from them. She was a nice girl, dark skin and even darker hair that was curlier than Aurelia's, she was pretty and she always had a compliment up her sleeve. Aurelia wasn't a friend of Lavender's as they never had a full conversation but Aurelia did spend a lot of time in the Gryffindor Common Room with Neville and when they did cross paths, Lavender was always complimenting her on something.

"Hey guys," Lavender greets the trio, "Excited for the Hogsmeade trip, this is your first year isn't it, Weasley?"

Neville gives a mumbled, awkward response that no one can decipher while Ginny gives Lavender an odd look but nods her head. Aurelia inhales again, Lavender said something to her, she asked a question, something to do with Hogsmeade. She plays with a loose button on her brown tartan jacket, she thinks Lavender asked them if they were looking forward to it, did she have to respond? It's not like Lavender spefically asked her, Aurelia doesn't think she can form words.

Lavender smiles, this time look at Aurelia as she says "I bloody well love your outfit, it's so sophisticated. It fits you, Black."

Aurelia nods numbly then freezes, _no_ , Lavender said she liked her outfit, a nod isn't a proper response. And this time, she was looking at Aurelia or at least that's what it looks like "Uh . . . my — my outfit?" she asks, struggling to get the words out.

Lavender smiles politely and nods patiently "Yes, yours! It's so well put together, you have an eye for fashion!"

Ginny gives Lavender a disbelieving look, she can't believe someone would want to talk about fashion of all things to someone who looks like they're about to keel over from lack of air.

Aurelia looks over her outfit, trying to remember what she had worn today, she had worn her brown tartan jacket, it was only a fall one and it was long, she wore it because she was cold even sitting in front of the fire. She had a yellow turtleneck on and a pair of reddish-brown corduroy pants that flared out at the bottom, looking at it now she thinks that Lavender is right, it is a good outfit. She nods her head again, trying to smile although she's sure it looks more like a grimace but Lavender doesn't seem to mind.

"Thank — Thanks, this jacket, uh, it . . . it belongs to my mum," Aurelia says, struggling to speak coherently. Her struggle doesn't seem to bother Lavender either.

"She always dresses good," Ginny says, she doesn't know much about fashion but the conversation seemingly calmed Aurelia down and she was willing to talk about it until Aurelia was alright again.

"She has this sunflower dress," Neville pipes in, sounding more eager than Ginny, he probably knows more about fashion than she does.

"Oh, yes, I know," Lavender gushes, "I've seen her wear it before, she always has the best clothes! Where do you shop at?"

Aurelia swallows and her mouth feels dry as sandpaper "Uh, well my — Mae made the sunflower dress, she — she, uh, she makes a lot of my clothes. I usually, um, I shop at various Muggle stores, I can't — I can't remember the — the names of them."

"That's fine," Lavender says and she smiles again, "Did she make your dress for the Yule Ball then or did you buy it?"

This is a conversation that excites everyone even Ginny who wouldn't be able to go as it was only for fourth years and up, unless someone ended up asking her to go. Aurelia's heart slows down and she grows less tense as she begins to talk about her Yule Ball dress which had arrived with the letters from Mae, Remus, and the Tonks. Mae said she added some last minutes details which Aurelia had yet to see and was very excited about. Everyone listens eagerly as Aurelia's voice goes from a stammering weak mess to a whimisical, narrator from a Children's book as she speaks about her dress in vivid detail.

"And it has these beautiful flowers on it, I think they're supposed to be marigolds. Flowers aren't my strong suit, I'll have Neville confirm this for me, I'm much better with succulents but anyway, the flowers are on the skirt of the dress and they shimmer in certain lightning and — _OH, FUCK_! _I'm going fight a dragon_!

* * *

* * *

**AURELIA WRITES A LOT** , she writes stories, poems, essays, anything really and she writes fast. Her dorm mates are well accustomed to this fact but even they're surprised when Aurelia spends all of Friday night and all of Saturday morning writing pages upon pages of something. They hadn't seen her write with such fervor in quite awhile, they assumed it was another one of her stories so they left her be. When it comes time for their Hogsmeade trip on Saturday morning, Aurelia gently tucks the pages into her bag.

Hannah catches sight of the paper and snorts: "Merlin, please tell me you didn't write yourself a will?!"

Aurelia looks up at her and Hannah's laughter dies away instantly, Aurelia looks like a wounded puppy.

"Come now, Blue, the tournament won't be that bad."

 _Says you_ , Aurelia thinks, _I've got to fight a bloody dragon — possibly dragons! It's going to be a disaster_!

Her spell should work, but it's not a guarantee and the leaves her feeling rather nervous. She had been working on the spell for a few years now and she had tested it on a few House-Elves and Ellie and the spell had worked wonderfully. The problem is that House-Elves and Ellie are tiny compared to dragons and the spell may not be as potent on them as it had been on Mimsie or Ellie. Her life depends on this spell working the way she hopes it will.

Aurelia swallows thickly, hoisting the strap of her bag over the shoulder "It's best to be prepared."

"Oh, you're such a drama queen! You'll be just fine," Hannah says, smiling fondly at Aurelia who gives her a small smile in return. She doesn't feel like she'll be just fine but Aurelia takes a deep breath and reminds herself that she gets to see Mae soon and Remus as well. Aurelia grins at that thought, she misses Mae.

The ride to Hogsmeade seems to drag on a lot longer than usual and despite the fact Aurelia is surrounded by her friends she feels lonely. It's not an unusual feeling as of late but it's a feeling she thinks she shouldn't feel in this moment. But, then again she hadn't been feeling right since it truly hit her that she would have to fight a dragon, she was really stuck in this tournament whether she liked it or not. It's left her feeling queasy all week, Aurelia hates feeling like this.

Her friends are talking about their plans for the Hogsmeade trip, plans Aurelia can't be apart of as she's going to meet up with Mae and Remus and they know that. Aurelia frowns, slouching in her seat. Neville notices her sad demeanour and frowns as well. Reaching over and grabbing her hand, he wishes she wasn't so sad all the time. She's been really sad since she had been entered in the tournament. _It's not fair_ , he thinks, _neither she or Harry should've been forced to compete_.

Finally the carriage comes to a stop in Hogsmeade and the group of friends split up, Aurelia heading to the Three Broomsticks and the others heading to Honeydukes. Someone shoves past her just as she was about to enter the pub, Aurelia goes to call them out but falls short upon seeing who it is. Skeeter. Aurelia keeps quiet, hoping that Skeeter doesn't see her.

The Three Broomsticks is packed tighter and at the very back, Remus sits with Mae; Remus waves her over, a fond smile on his scarred face.

"Rory," He greets her happily, she gives him a confused look in return, "Oh, sorry . . . It's a nickname Padfoot came up for you when you were a little baby. He couldn't for the life of him, pronounce your name right. So, he called you Rory and it stuck," Remus says nervously, "I can't count how many times I almost called you that last year. Does that . . . Bother you?"

Aurelia shakes her head "No, it's just . . . How do you get 'Rory' from Aurelia?"

Remus grins, eyes cloud with nostalgia "Well . . . Heh, Padfoot, he thought your name was pronounced Ah-Roar-Reelah."

Aurelia snickers, taking a seat that Remus offers her.

"No one had the heart to correct him," Remus says.

"Which is probably why Trix was the one who corrected him." Mae mutters earning a snort from Remus.  
  
Aurelia looks at Mae, she looks like she hasn't slept in days.

"Wee moon," Mae greets Aurelia, giving her a weak smile.

"Mae . . ."

"How are you?"

Her throat constricts and tears burn her eyes — _it was only a question, why are you crying_?!

Aurelia manages a nod, Mae reaches across the table and grabs Aurelia's cold hands "I'm so, so sorry, wee moon, I — we tried to get you out but they wouldn't hear it. I'm truly sorry."  
  
"It's okay," Aurelia mumbles.   
  
Mae pats her hands "Would you like somethin' to drink? To eat?"

"A Butterbeer would be nice, if that's okay?"

Mae's smile brightens "O' course! I'll be right back — do you want anythin' Remus?"

Remus shakes his head and Mae heads up to the counter to purchase the beverage.

Aurelia looks at Remus quizzically "Why are you here?"

"Do . . . Do you not want me here? I figured — Professor Sprout figured it'd be good for you. She assumed you were fond of me as I am of you. Professor Sprout I'd be good . . . Moral support. But, I can leave if you want."

Aurelia shakes her head quickly "No — I — I didn't mean it like that! I want you to stay, I just don't understand why you'd want to be here."

"Because I do, Rory, I care about you."

Aurelia blinks "But, why? I mean I remember distinctly that you told me my essay about killing werewolves was the most brutal and graphic and you looked pretty wounded by it."

"Yes, it upset me but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. I knew why yours was written the way it was I never blamed you, it was Severus who set the essay and you were just doing as asked," Remus says, seemingly confused by Aurelia's way of thinking.

It still doesn't explain why he cares enough to visit it her in the first place, Aurelia stares at him and he looks at her incredulously — _sweet Merlin, child, just accept my affection_!

Aurelia flinches, as she catches a snippet of Remus' thought. She's becoming more aware of her Legilimency abilities and she hates it. Aurelia really needs to get it in check even if that means asking Snape for help, her Aunt Andromeda couldn't help her since she was so far away and Aurelia would willingly fight a danger before asking Lyra to help her.

"You alright, Rory?"

Aurelia nods "Yeah, it's just my Legilimency's gotten more noticeable since, well, since the whole Goyle and Rowle thing."

Remus grows pale as he stammers: "Legil — Legilimency?"

Aurelia looks away shamefully "Sorry, I don't mean too. I never mean too. I don't go looking into people's mind, the thoughts just jump out at me. I — I'm really sorry."

"Don't apologise, I'm not mad . . . I'm just surprised . . . Well, have you asked Lyra for help. I know she's good with Legilimency and Occlumency, even during school she was good at it. She could help you."

Aurelia laughs loudly, snorting "Lyra'd never help me!"  
  
Remus frowns "I could ask her, I was always her favourite — she told me herself, I swear I'm not being full of myself here, Rory. I'm sure she'd help if I asked."

She shakes her head "No, I don't want Lyra's help. I'd rather perish. Although, I appreciate the offer, I really but I will throw myself off the anstronomy tower before I ask for her help. I'll have to ask Snape," Aurelia shudders, "He's no better but at least I can trust he won't fuck me over like Lyra might. I think Snape was supposed to teach me originally but I cried the first time I saw him and I was too scared to learn anything from him, that's why they let Aunt Andy handle it . . . I don't understand why my mother couldn't teach me, but whatever, I was never the favorite."  
  
Remus nods although he still looks concerned "Right, of course."

Mae returns with a Butterbeer and Firewhisky, she hands the Butterbeer to Aurelia and sits down. Mae cracks open her Firewhisky and takes a large swig of it.

"What did they tell you about the first task," Mae asks.

"Nothing," Aurelia replies, taking a sip of her Butterbeer.

"Why am I not surprised," Mae mutters, rolling her eyes.

"It's dragons," Aurelia says bluntly, "Ginny told me, I have to tell Fleur Delacour! It's only fair, I've told Viktor and I told Cedric. I'm sure Ron's told Harry even if they're not speaking, Ron's not that petty . . . I have to fight a dragon!"

Remus pales again and inhales sharply.

"Oh, mac na galla," Mae swears in Gaelic.  
  
"I've got a plan don't worry. I'm not scared of the first task, it's the other tasks that scare me." Aurelia says, she reaches for her bag but steels herself from doing so. They might laugh at her or call her dramatic for this, so she leaves the unofficial will she wrote in her bag. Besides, they find it after if she dies, "The first task is supposed to be the easiest and if it's going to be dragons just imagine how hard the other task'll be."

"We'll be at the first task," Mae tells her, "Remus and I'll be there. We won't be able to talk to you beforehand or afterwards. But, we'll be in the stands, cheerin' you on."

Aurelia smiles gratefully.

"How are you're classes going," Remus queries, "Are they teaching anything that you can use in the tournament."

Aurelia blushes as she admits "I haven't been paying attention . . . It's been so hard, I've got so much on my mind . . . I've been so tired — I'm not failing though, I promise!"

Mae frowns, something flashing in her green eyes "Perhaps during Christmas holidays I shall see if I can take you somewhere to get you checked out —"

"Checked out," Aurelia echoes, raising an eyebrow, "Checked out for what? There's nothing wrong with me."  
  
"For depression, wee moon. I think you might have it, it does run in your family. you've never shown signs of it before so I didn't want to say anythin' but I think you might have it. It'll require Muggle treatment, we don't really have anythin' for depression, your mum and aunts never got treatment for it. Well, Andromeda did eventually."

"Depression? Is . . . Is that bad?"

"No, wee moon. Well, not exactly, it's not the-look-on-your-face-bad but it can be bad. you might not have it, I just they way you're talkin' it got me worried. I just want to get you checked when I can."

Aurelia wonders if this depression thing has anything to do with those little moments she has. Aurelia takes another drink, she wonders if she should be worried, Mae looks worried but not too worried. Perhaps it's nothing. Remus and Mae start laughing at something Mae had said, to Aurelia they look like really good friends.

"I didn't know you and Remus knew each other," Aurelia points out.

Mae and Remus share a look of some kind — _they're hiding something from me_.

"We've met a few times here and there. Mostly during Hogsmeade trips, Sirius wasn't given any money for the trips so Trix would go and give him some money —"

"I thought Aunt Bella hate —"

"Oh, she pretty much did . . . Or so she said but, I think she had a soft spot for him. But the money was, well, a reward for him keeping her secret — me. So, until he was officially disowned would do little nice things for Sirius because he knew about us. I'm not sure if she did it because she was thankful for his secrecy or because she didn't want him to tell but that's how Remus and I know each other."

Aurelia blinks, _well_ since she brought it up!

"Did you really love her," Aurelia asks.

Mae frowns "Would you think any less o' me, wee moon?"

Aurelia shakes her head quickly "No, mum! I'd never think bad of you!"

Mae gives her a weak smiles then sniffles and nods "I really did, Aurelia, I love — d her wit' my whole heart."  
  
Mae reaches across the table and smooths Aurelia's curls "I love you more, wee moon. you an' Ellie, I love you two so much, you're my whole world, my everythin'."

Aurelia smiles, feeling a surge of respect and love for the redhead "I love you too, mum."

A moment passes, Remus asks: "Mae tells me you're real excited for the Yule Ball . . . Have you picked out your dress yet?"

Aurelia's green eyes light up and she begins discussing just how thrilled she is for the Yule Ball.

* * *

* * *

**WITH AN HOUR** or two to spare for the Hogsmeade thrip, Aurelia decides to go find her friends since Mae and Remus had left earlier than she had expected. Their visit had significantly cheered her up, but she can still feel that numb feeling just below the surface. It seems to her that she can't shake this numbness no matter what, she just got to see her mum and her favourite professor, she should be happier. But, she's not and that scares her, she still somehow feels lonely.

"Aurelia," A German accent calls out and seconds later, hands are wrapped around her forearm in a vice-like grip.

Aurelia jumps, her heart starts to race — _it's just Noelle! It's okay, calm down_!

"Noelle! How are you?"

"I'm great! And you must be fantastic! Competing in the tournament, how amazing is that?!"

Aurelia plasters a fake smile on her face as she weakly says: "Yeah . . . Exciting."

"You are not happy. You should be. The goblet thought you were worthy," Noelle says bitterly.

Aurelia frowns "Well, I don't want to be worthy for once in my life I don't want it. I don't want to be in it. Now, if you'll please excuse me I'm going to meet my friends. I'll see you around, Noelle." 

Noelle lets go of her forearm and quickly snakes her arm around Aurelia's shoulder. At this action, Aurelia feels all her anger and sadness melt away to bubbly happiness. Her face grows hot and she inhales sharply, clearly surprised by Noelle's move.

"Aw," Noelle moans, pouting, "Do you not want to spend time with me, Aurelia?"

"Yes," Aurelia stammers "Y — yes, of — of course I want t — to hang out with you!"

Noelle grins "Wonderful! So, Aurelia, do you want to play twenty-one questions."

"Sure," Aurelia complies despite not knowing how to play the game.

"Alright. Hm, what is your favourite colour? Mine is red."

"Gold! Like golden yellow not shimmering gold though shimmering gold is nice," Aurelia answers.

There's a long pause, a very awkward pause than Noelle giggles "You're supposed to ask a question in return, silly girl."  
  
"Oh! Right! Your favourite kind of chocolate? I love all kinds but milk chocolate is my favourite — preferably Hershey's Kisses with the white chocolate, they're a Muggle sweet, I think but they're bloody good!"

"I like dark chocolate best. Favourite kind of animal? Mine's a jaguar," Noelle replies as they pass Honeydukes.

"Hmm, I can't choose between a cat or a fox. I have a cat, I named him Freddie Purrcury but I usually just call him Freddie. Do you have any pets?"

"Nah. Worst fears? Mine are failure. Mice and death."

"Uh, werewolves, death, going insane, snakes specifically Garter snakes —"

Noelle laughs loudly "Aren't those the least deadly snakes on Earth?"

Aurelia shrugs "I know shit about snakes other than the names of some. I found a little Garter snake in my gardens when I was just a wee thing and I thought it was so cute. It thought I was so biteable. I was so shocked that I completely blanked, don't remember what happened after it but look at the scar — Sometimes when I get bored I turn it into a little smiley face."

"Now, that's a cute scar," Noelle says, eyes drifting from Aurelia's finger to her cheek.

Aurelia's blissfully unaware of this as she continues: " — water, and Voldemort. Fav —"

"You speak his name," Noelle whispers angrily, eyes flashing dangerously.

Aurelia blinks, surprised by her reaction "Sorry, it's just . . . You-Know-Who is such a mouthful for me and I'm not sure if his name's Tim or Tom so Voldemort is the easiest for me to say. I know I shouldn't say it but I can't help it."

"We are not allowed to say it at Durmstrang, we get in lots of trouble if we do."  
  
"Un — understandable. Uh, favourite ice-cream? Mine's Chocolate Chip and Cookie Dough."

"Strawberry . . . Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

Aurelia feels faint but not in a bad way, she feels all warm and fuzzy — _say yes_! — and her face must be brighter than a Weasley's hair. — _say yes! Say yes_! — She likes Noelle well enough and apparently Noelle feels the same — _SAY YES_! — _but Neville, I think I like him more_ — _SAY YES! SAY YES_! — _don't I like him more, I do know him better but he's just my best friend — SAY —_

"Yes," Aurelia breathes out, grinning brightly.

Things get blurry. Aurelia's excited, someone _actually_ fancies her! Noelle leans down and kiss her cheek but _what about what others will think? What about Neville? Stop caring._

_Wait._

_Something feels wrong_?

 _Nothing's wrong_ , Aurelia feels great, it's just moving really fast but that's okay. It's not like their relationship would even last, Noelle's leaving at the end of the year — _nothing's wrong_.

A very loud cough interrupts them.

"I thought you were supposed to be meeting your mum and Remus," Seamus calls out.

Aurelia looks over her shoulder, turning red as she wonders how much they had seen.

"I w — was."

Seamus and Dean raise their eyebrows in disbelief, Seamus crosses his arms over his chest and in the middle of the two stands Neville, a heartbroken, disappointed look on his face. Aurelia's heart clenches painfully. He looks so sad, why does he look so sad?

"Then why — why are you hang — hanging out with Noelle," Neville stammers, his lower lip quivering, "You didn't need to lie ab — about spending time wi — with her. I — I un — understand."

"I didn't —"

Noelle smiles sweetly "Well, I don't see how that's any of your business — Aurelia, why don't we go find somewhere romantic for our date."

"Wait, I —"

But, Noelle's dragging her away from her friends before Aurelia can get her explanation out.

"Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, sounds romantic enough, huh, Aurelia?"  
  
Aurelia nods numbly, glancing over shoulder at her friends. _Oh, Merlin_ , she hopes they're not too angry at her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is an important note so please read: Aurelia and Noelle's relationship is supposed to come out of the blue and they shouldn't be dating each other, Aurelia's young and impressionable whereas Noelle is 17 and way too mature for Aurelia and Noelle is very much aware of this fact, their relationship is not one you should ship! From chapters 18 to 23, which is how long their relationship lasts, it technically ends in chapter 22 but the chapter is a bit triggering for a scene of sexual assault so it's not done until chapter 23. It's not graphic, nothing in their relationship will be overly graphic but even mentions of sexual assault and abuse can be triggering so I wanted to warn everyone to be careful when reading those chapters.
> 
> Their relationship will be toxic, on the part of Noelle who is grooming and gaslighting Aurelia, there is some physical abuse but it's not written graphically. It's mostly emotional abuse that Noelle puts Aurelia through. So please be aware of this and be careful when reading the following chapters: 
> 
> Chapter 18: Dragonheart  
> ( Noelle doesn't appear in Chapter 19: Fall of a Star )  
> Chapter 20: Dancing Queen  
> Chapter 21: The Little Mermaid ( Noelle is mentioned, Aurelia thinks about the abuse but no abuse occurs )  
> Chapter 22: Foxtrot and Padfoot ( Non-Graphic Sexual Assault occurs in the first half of the chapter )  
> Chapter 23: Murder Mystery is Noelle-Free and Noelle doesn't appear anymore
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 5,513


	20. Dragonheart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which fighting dragons is about as easy as being green — it's not . . ."

****

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN** :

 **018 ||** Dragonheart

* * *

**NEVILLE CAN'T STAY** mad at Aurelia. Seamus and Dean, however, can. It's been a whole day since he last spoke to Aurelia, mostly due to the fact Seamus refused to let Neville say a word to her but somewhat because Aurelia had spent most of Sunday with Noelle.

He's upset that Aurelia decided to date Noelle but ignoring her like Seamus thinks he should do just sounds dumb. He doesn't want to lose Aurelia because of this even if he doesn't understand why she'd want to date Noelle, he doesn't want her to date the Durmstrang girl for many reasons.

There's no way around it: he's jealous. Completely, utterly, miserably jealous of Noelle. _It's not fair_ , he's known Aurelia longer. He's not the one leaving at the end of the year. Noelle, in his mind, doesn't deserve Aurelia. Neville grumbles angrily as he does up his tie. _Maybe you should've asked Aurelia out sooner, you gutless egg — Merlin, you even sound like Aurelia! It's not fair_ , Neville's had a crush on her since second year, he only realised in third year that it was a crush when he got a paper cut and she had given him a 'Scooby Doo' band-aid and kissed it better. He's been, as Seamus says, whipped ever since.

Noelle probably doesn't even really like Aurelia. Noelle doesn't know Aurelia, she doesn't — _why are you bothering to go over this when you know you're not going to say anything about it_. Neville scowls at his reflection, he's not going to say anything, even if he wasn't a total coward he still wouldn't say a word to Aurelia, this is what she wants. She's happy being with Noelle — she smiled so prettily when Noelle had asked her out, _maybe one day she'll smile at me like that if I ever get the guts to ask her out_.  
  
 _At least she's happy_ , Neville tells himself, she's his best friend who he'd much rather see happy than have her all to himself. She deserves to be happy. If she's happy, he's happy. Only, he's a little sad that she's not dating him — _oh, quit moping, Neville_!

Neville becomes aware that Seamus is instructing him not to talk to Aurelia today, the Irish boy pokes his arm multiple times trying to get his attention.

"You know what to do, right? Hey, Nev?"  
  
Neville rolls his eyes "Yeah, but it's a stupid idea and I'm not going to do it."

 _Aurelia would be proud of that response_! Neville praises himself.

Seamus sighs exasperatedly "But —"

Neville shakes his head "No. It — It's not fair nor is it right for me to — to ignore her just because she's got a girlfriend."

"But, it is! She almost kisses you and then goes off and dates a stranger like some kind of slag," Seamus exclaims.

Dean looks between Seamus and Neville, the look on Neville's face is a surprising one.

"Don't. Call. Her. That," Neville grits out.

Seamus glances at Dean, wondering if he should take Neville seriously. Seamus nods his head slowly while Dean suppresses a snicker.

"She is not a slag! She was just try — trying to kiss my cheek, it was dark — this is — is why I did — didn't want to tell you about that."

Seamus gives Neville a look and this time Dean can't hold back his snickers.

"Then why," Seamus begins dramatically, "Did ya run into our dorm yellin' " _ASTEROPEALMOSTKISSEDME_!' huh, Lover Boy?"

Neville scowls, blushing "What — whatever. I — I'm not go — going to ignore her. Th — that's a stupid idea. Aurelia's got every right to kiss or — or date whoever she likes and as her — her best friend I should be sup — supportive of that," he says firmly, even though he feels the exact opposite of what he just said.

Both Dean and Seamus laugh in disbelief, Neville sighs as he leaves the dorm which causes the other two to laugh louder. Down in the common room, the few straggling students are reading the Daily Prophet but when Neville stumbles on the last few steps, they look up at him.

They keep staring at him even after he composes himself, leaving him to wonder if he put his shirt on backwards again.

"Wh — what," He questions nervously, feeling small.

One second-year moves forward and hands him the newspaper. He scans through it, the headline gives his heart a start and makes his mouth run dry. The first paragraph practically shoots his nerves.

"Oh no!"   
  


* * *

* * *

**AURELIA WANTS TO** kill Rita Skeeter, she doesn't think she's ever wanted to kill someone before — not this bad at least. Half the common room had steered clear of her this morning — _so much for loyalty! Those fuckers_! The worst part of the article is the fact Rita Skeeter had the audacity to bad-mouth Remus, to insinuate that he was the one who 'bit' her and gave her the scars on her body. How dare she?! Aurelia wants revenge like she's never wanted revenge before. She'll have to have a little chat with Ellie and the twins later.

How dare Skeeter have a go at Remus like that. Aurelia is bloody pissed that Skeeter wrote an article trying to convince everyone that she's a werewolf but the fact Skeeter brought Remus into this pisses her off even more.

Mari sits across from her folding any copies of the newspaper that she can get her hands on into little origami dogs. Beside her sits Olivia who huffs, an annoyed expression on her face as she rolls her eyes.

Olivia hands her copy of the Daily Prophet to Mari, saying: "That's a load of crap! Who does this woman even think she is?!"

Aurelia wipes away angry tears as she internally curses Skeeter out.

"Maybe if we get Grease Lightning to breathe too loudly she'll write an article about him and everyone will forget this mess," Olivia suggests sarcastically.  
  
Aurelia laughs weakly "May — maybe."

"Anywho — whoever believes this article is a mouldy Niffler," Olivia declares.

Aurelia and Mari share a look, holding back snickers.

"Liv, do you even know what a Niffler is," Mari questions, organising her army of origami dogs.

"Nope," Olivia replies.

Mari laughs, shaking her head.

"Well, there must be a lot of mouldy Nifflers 'round here because almost everyone seems to believe this article," Aurelia mumbles.

Crabbe and Warrington had convinced the first-year Slytherins that the article is true which had resulted in one of them crying in fear. Millicent Bulstrode had followed her down a corridor howling after her, which had left Aurelia very unnerved. One second-year Gryffindor had even called her a monster.

"The first task is tomorrow," Mari points out, moving on to fold some napkins.

"Don't remind me," Aurelia grumbles, "Where's Neville? Have you seen him come in yet?"

"Nah, are you fighting or something," Olivia wonders, "I didn't see you hanging out with him at all yesterday? In fact you were with that Noelle girl the whole time, practically attached at the hip."

Aurelia tries to hide her blush but Olivia sees it before she can, the latter grins slyly.

"Oh my God! What is going on with you and that girl — were you on a date —"

"Sod off, no I wasn't! And, for your information, Liv, I wasn't with Noelle all day, I talked to Fleur Dealcour for at least an hour," Aurelia rebuts.

Olivia rolls her eyes, but Mari looks up with a dreamy gaze on her face "You talked to Fleur Delacour? Are you friends? Ooh, I want to be her friend!"

"I guess we're friends, I told her about the first task yesterday and she was really grateful about it. She's actually pretty nice," Aurelia says, watching slightly amused as Mari fawns over the French girl she barely knows.

"I heard from Seamus that you're dating Noelle, he was pretty pissed about it," Olivia says.

Aurelia inwardly panics, so she asks in an even voice "How . . . How mad is mad?"

"Are you dating her," Olivia asks again, ignoring Aurelia's question.

"I don't think they're dating, Blue wouldn't date someone she barely knows," Mari remarks.

"Why does it matter if I'm dating her," Aurelia asks, narrowing her eyes. She doesn't know why she feels so defensive, it's not like she's going to be judged for being bisexual by another bisexual, Aurelia doesn't think she can be at the very least.

"Well, it's just, we didn't know you actually liked girls," Olivia begins in a light tone.

"Well, so what if I do?"

"No, that's not what we mean . . . It's just you've never said."

"Why should I have to," Aurelia retorts, "You know some Pureblood families don't take too kindly to that, it's better to let people speculate than let them label you."

"Fair enough," Mari says, giving a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, okay, but this isn't about you being or not being bisexual — good for you by the way. Now I'm no longer all bi myself," Olivia jokes but Aurelia stares at her blankly; Mari giggles at least.

Olivia waves her hand dismissively, "Alright, fine, we don't have to talk about your undisclosed sexuality, really, it's none of our bloody business until you decide it is. This is about Longbottom."

"What about Neville?"

"Well, you like him," Olivia says.

"No, I mean, yes, he's my best friend and I've told you it's not like that . . . I mean, I'm like eighty percent sure it's not like that."

"And he likes you,"

"No, he doesn't. Not like that. He wouldn't, he couldn't! Look at me, I'm —"

"Stunningly beautiful," Mari pipes in.

"Aw, thank you," Aurelia gushes, caught off guard by the compliment.

"He likes you, Blue, and it is so painfully obvious," Olivia says, annoyance tinging her words at all the interuptions she's facing, "Don't even argue with me, you know it's true, deep down you know it. Neville Longbottom fancies the pants off you and I think you feel the same but you're in denial about it for some stupid reason so it just looks like you're leading him on!"

The Great Hall seems to grow quiet but Aurelia knows only herself and Mari had heard that. She knows that everyone else is probably still going about their business but it feels like everyone is looking at her.

"What," Aurelia croaks out.

Olivia sighs softly, she didn't mean for it to come out like that, she just wanted to warn Aurelia what Finnigan thought of her before getting interrupted again.

" _People_ might think that you're leading him on," Olivia repeats herself, keeping her tone soft so Aurelia doesn't think there's anything personal in her words because there isn't. Olivia is just telling her this because she knows how Aurelia feels about her reputation and this, even though it's not true, would do nothing to help it.

Aurelia's eyes narrow "I am not leading him on, I don't like him and he doesn't like me, I wouldn't lead him on, I wouldn't hurt him — I'm not like my aunt!"

Her heart pounds in her chest as Olivia gives her a concerned expression and then Aurelia's face turns red because that's not what Olivia was suggesting. Her aunt had nothing to do with this conversation and yet . . . Aurelia swallows thickly.

"I didn't —" Olivia begins to say and Aurelia knows what she's going to say and she knows that Olivia didn't mean it like that but Aurelia runs away anyway.

"Oh, come back! Blue, seriously," Olivia calls out exasperatedly but Aurelia ignores her.

Leaving, the Great Hall, Aurelia starts looking for Neville although she should probably be looking for Noelle. Her girlfriend. But, all she can concern herself with besides the overwhelming fear of people actually knowing that she likes girls, is finding Neville.

Aurelia doesn't want anyone to be able to put a label on her, she doesn't want be to know there's truth to their judgement. She supposes, at this point, she doesn't care if anyone assumes she's bisexual. They can't really judge her if they just assume. They can't. Which is why, Aurelia had asked Noelle not to tell anyone they're dating. It's supposed to be a secret relationship, she just didn't want to go around telling other people they're actually dating. They can act like the couple they are but when or if anyone asks, they're only friends. Which, Aurelia realises, probably sounds stupid but it makes her feel better. Safer.

 _Why have I said yes_? Aurelia wonders but quickly shakes her head — _you like Noelle, she's pretty and she's nice. It'll be a nice little fling. Possibly more if things go well —_

❝My friend,❞ Fleur calls out in French, distracting Aurelia from her thoughts.

The blonde is approaching her, wearing a pretty grin on her pretty face. Aurelia had run into Fleur yesterday when hanging out with Noelle, which had been a perfect time for Aurelia to warn her about the first task and Fleur had deeply appreciated it.

❝Oh, Fleur! Uh, Hello . . . Look, if this is about the article, it's not true,❞ Aurelia says in French, hoping that she said it correctly. It had been years since Aurelia had to speak French, so she reckons she's a bit foggy.

❝No, that's not what I want to talk about,❞ Fleur says, ❝You're very right! It is dragons, Madam Maxime told me she saw them, there's one for each of us, a Welsh Green, Swedish Snout, Horntail, and a Hadrian Black.❞

❝Hebridean Black,❞ Aurelia corrects, ❝Did she mention which dragon has been assigned to who?❞

Fleur shakes her head.

❝Merde,❞ Aurelia swears.

❝I don't think it matters, they must just be giving us the dragons randomly — oh, by the way your girlfriend is looking for you!❞

❝Great just — wait, what? What did you just say?❞

❝This Durmstrang girl, said she was looking for her girlfriend — you.❞

Aurelia freezes, she had told Noelle not to tell anyone that they were specifically dating. She didn't want anyone to know outside of Seamus, Dean, and Neville, who had seen it happen. Noelle had been mad at first, saying she didn't want to have a secret relationship, Aurelia had promised her it wouldn't be secret. They could hold hands, hug, and kiss each other's cheek, and all the other cute shit couples do just as long as no one is told that they're dating. Noelle had told her she understood, why was she going around and doing the exact opposite of what Aurelia had asked of her?

It had been so simple, to Aurelia at least, she didn't want anyone to know that she liked girls. God, she's terrified. What if people are ashamed of her, liking girls has always been taboo in her family's social circle. Aurelia, herself, still hasn't completely accepted she likes girls. She's been more accepting of it these past couple of years but she's still not ready for everyone to know.

 _Why did you say yes then_? Her head hurts, _if you're so damned afraid, why did you say yes_?

 _Because you like Noelle_ , Aurelia tells herself, _even if you haven't accepted it yet. You like Noelle, even if that scares you. You like her and you want to be with her_.

❝Aurelia, are you alright,❞ Fleur asks.

Aurelia nods ❝Yeah — uh, I — I'm fine, that article, it —❞

"Zey are wrong, Aurelia, you are sweet and kind. Do not believe zat article, you are much better zhan zat," Fleur says with a kind smile, "You are nicer zhan most to me and my seester, werewolf or not, you are a good person in my book."

Aurelia smiles gratefully "Thank you, Fleur."

Fleur smiles brightly then kisses both Aurelia's cheeks before skipping off. Aurelia doesn't mean to sound self-centred but she's pretty sure she's Fleur's favourite person at Hogwarts. Fleur seems to like her far more than just an appreciation for Aurelia's willingness to help her with the tournament.

In fact, as far as Aurelia can tell, all the Triwizard champions are her friends. Fleur and Viktor don't see her as competition as she doesn't really care about winning (she guesses it might be nice) and her and Cedric had been really close friends since first year, and Harry's a pretty good friend even if they don't talk that much. But, the four of them like her well enough, if any good comes from the tournament it'd be the fact she gained two new friends.

Aurelia continues down the hall, a group of first years start to whisper as she passes by them, doing nothing to help the rumours, she bares her teeth at them. They gasp loudly in surprise before scampering off down the hallway. She rolls her eyes before continuing her way to the Gryffindor common room, she's about three floors up when she runs into Neville.

"Oof," Neville exclaims, falling on his butt.

❝Putain,❞ Aurelia curses, tripping over his feet.

"Poutine," Neville echoes, helping her up and then looking over her to make sure she hadn't injured herself in the fall. She bruised and scraped easily, so it wouldn't be surprising.

"No — putain. French for fuck," Aurelia explains quickly as Neville wipes something off her striped sweater.

"Look, Neville —"

"I know. The article is fake. I know."

"Well, technically, I was with Remus yesterday but not because of the reasons Skeeter says I was."

"I believe you. I'm sorry about sat — Saturday. I — I — I shouldn't have gotten so up — upset with you. It wasn't right, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Nev, you've got nothing to be sorry for," Aurelia assures him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it for good measure, "For the record, I'd never lie to you — er — the scars don't really count."

Neville laughs lightly, changing the subject as he asks: "How'd you — your girlfriend handle the art — article?"

 _Please tell me she broke up with you. Please say she broke up with you — wait . . . Oh, Merlin! Am I a horrible person for hoping for these things_? Neville internally panics, still a part of him prays that Noelle ended things with Aurelia. He does not say this out loud.

"Shh, don't call her that so loudly! And I don't know exactly. I've not spoken with her this mornin' but knowing my luck she won't take it well," Aurelia sighs.

"I do have to go find her soon," Aurelia adds, there's a flicker of fear in her eyes and Neville doesn't like it one bit.

"If she doesn't take it well you can bet Newton, Mari, and Abbott'll kick her butt and I'll cheer them on from the sidelines," Neville jokes, "But, I'm sure she'll handle it well, she'll let you explain everything."

He pulls her into a tight hug and suddenly Aurelia would much rather stay in his embrace than confront Noelle, she'd of probably done just that if it hadn't been for the fact Noelle's going around calling Aurelia her girlfriend, practically outing her to everyone. You should probably go stop that before she tells the whole school.

"Nev," Aurelia mumbles against his burgundy jumper, "I've really got to find Noelle."

"Oh."

"Can you come with me?"

". . . Sure."

Aurelia gives him a small, grateful smile before leading him back to the Great Hall. Along the way, she explains to him everything that had happened to her these morning, from being verbally attacked by little children, to getting howled at by Bulstrode, to Noelle doing the exact opposite of what she had asked of her. The latter of the events is what bugs Aurelia most as she spends most of the walk back rambling about it.

" _Dump her_ ," Is Neville solution to the problem, " _Dump her_." isn't the solution Aurelia's looking for so Neville doesn't offer it.

Entering the Entrance Hall, Aurelia asks if he'd like to help her practice for the first task one last time, and of course, he says yes.

"You're going to do great tomorrow, Ari," He says.

Aurelia nervously licks her lips "I hope so — oh."

Noelle's approaching them at a rapid pace, a copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her right hand. Aurelia's face drains of all colour as Noelle starts yelling at her in German.

Aurelia tries to explain but Noelle won't have any of it as she lashes out in her native tongue, screaming words neither Aurelia or Neville understand. After five minutes, Noelle stops yelling and sneers at Aurelia.

"Are you breaking up with me," Aurelia whimpers. She knew the relationship wasn't going to last but she expected it to go on for a bit longer than this.

"No," Noelle says shortly then stalks off before Aurelia can explain herself.

"I think she broke up with me," Aurelia whispers to Neville.

 _Thank Merlin_ , Neville thinks while he gives her a sympathetic shoulder squeeze and tells her that Noelle will come around eventually.  
  


* * *

* * *

**SHE DOESN'T SEE** Noelle for the rest of the day, Aurelia's not sure if that's because Noelle's ignoring her or because she just doesn't see her. Aurelia's absolutely positive that it's the latter. However, as much as it bugs her, it's the least of her worries. She's got less than twenty-four hours to make sure she's got her plan for the first task down pat.

Aurelia's determined to not die during the first task. She wants to make it to the third at the very least, it'll be great to prove to whoever put her name in the goblet that she's not as weak as they thought she was.

"Somnum Mortem," Aurelia mumbles as she sits in an empty classroom. Her wand's pointed at a potted plant that Neville had supplied for her, the said plant begins to wilt rapidly after being hit by a greenish-white light.  
  
"Vivifica Somnum," She says, another flash of the same coloured light hits the plant and it comes back to life just as quickly. Aurelia's been at this for ten minutes now, getting the same result every time.

The spell's had the same effect ever since she got the wording and the movement just right years back. It's worked ever since she got the 'z' movement down for it but she's still nervous that it won't work when she needs it most.

Neville enters the classroom, struggling to hold a pile of books.

"What's with the books," Aurelia wonders, coming over to help him.

"Oh, I — well, I figured it might help you to know some information on the dragons you've got to face tomorrow. Just in case something does go wrong — not that I think it will, I think your plan is brilliant — you're so worried that it might not work so I thought may — maybe these books could give you an idea for a back-up plan, j — just —"

Aurelia grabs the books from him and kisses his cheek "Thanks, Plant Boy."  
  
"No — no prob — problem," Neville stammers breathlessly.

The pair get to work, practicing for hours on end. Aurelia goes between her wand and the books. A few hours into their session study of sorts, Neville offers to be the test subject for her spell and Aurelia reluctantly agrees. It works perfectly fine, Neville grows even more intrigued with the spell.

He rambles on about how brilliant he thinks the spell is "Why'd you make it? Is it meant for your nightmares?"

"A new Killing Curse," Aurelia says, she hadn't meant to be so blunt about it and she hadn't meant to explain it so badly. It's just that no one's ever really asked her why she's created a spell, so she might've panicked.  
  
Neville pales, he must've misheard her "B — b — but that doesn't kill you, it just puts you to sleep doesn't it. I mean I could hear and see everything around me b — b — but it felt like I was asleep."

"Technically it's only supposed to fake kill you. And only part of your brain is asleep, I reckon. I don't know all the finer details of the spell or what it does to your body exactly all I know is that it's not supposed to hurt anyone as long as they're not under it for days on end. I guess the best way to describe it is, a body-binder that stops even your eyes from movin'," Aurelia explains quickly, "I made it to be like a Killing Curse, I made it to mock it. The spell makes you look dead, if I were to touch you I would think you're dead because I wouldn't be able to feel your breathe or your pulse. The spell hides that from others. Your heart and everything is still working on the inside but on the outside it doesn't appear that way. I thought it'd be useful eventually. I got to work out a few kinks, work on the hand movement the pronunciation but one day I want to spread it to the wrong hands. . . Make people think it's actually a Killing Curse and keep the counter-curse in the right hands. If it gets popular enough, the death toll could go down."

"Wow, that's brilliant, Aurelia. Really," Neville praises her, "Imagine if this had been around during the war, I think my par — parents would've loved it."

Aurelia grins "Really?"

Neville nods, grinning right back at her "I — I really do . . . I bet this spell'll guarantee you first place tomorrow!"

Aurelia blushes and quickly busies herself with a book — _you've got a girlfriend, you egg! At least, you're ninety-nine point nine percent certain you still do! Stop getting all blushy over Neville, I don't care how damned cute you think he is, you can't think he's cute right now! Good Godric, you're such a mess_!  
  


* * *

* * *

**THE MORNING OF** the first task is the absolute worst and she knows that the moment she wakes up. Her friends' enthusiastic support does nothing but irritate her even if she does appreciate it deep down. She knows it shouldn't irritate her like it is but it does. Noelle completely ignores her unless it's to insist that she's not breaking up with her which offsets her most of all. _Well, she did wish you good luck . . . Yeah, but she did that passive-aggressively_.

Most of her house-mates focus on Cedric and Aurelia doesn't mind because he's the official champion whereas Aurelia's the forced, underage champion that didn't really want to be part of it. Besides, Cedric's the sociable, golden boy with a nice face and Aurelia's the tall, skinny tree with a bitch face and a sarcastic attitude. It's plain to see who's easier to root for. That's not to say they don't support her at all, they did wish her luck and all that jazz but it's clear to Aurelia that she's not their favourite, as usual for her, the girl that's literally named the golden one.

Besides, having her friend's support, even if it's irritating the fuck out of her, is a lot better than having everyone's support. Aurelia's bad mood lasts all the through lunch even with Neville by her side, she still finds herself feeling irritated and upset.

She doesn't want to do this. She doesn't want to be apart of this tournament and the only one who seems to comprehend this fact is Neville and even he can't make her feel better. Neville doesn't bring up the first task that's less than a hour away from starting. Instead he makes small talk that Aurelia pays no mind to as she chews on her sandwich and thinks of all the ways this could go wrong.

Her other friends had gone on to pester Cedric whether that was because they wanted to divide their support equally or because they got angry that Aurelia seemed to basically ignore their praise, she doesn't know. All she knows is that she's glad they're not cheering in her ear, which Aurelia thinks might make her sound like an asshole, she just couldn't help it.

" — Who knows though. May — maybe it'll rain and — and then maybe the dragon won't — Oh. Professor Sprout's coming," Neville points out.

Aurelia's dread increases ten-fold — _It's time_.

"Can I, um, maybe not do this," Aurelia asks Professor Sprout as she approaches the table.

Sprout gives her a fond smile and shakes her head as she beckons Aurelia to follow her. Before she gets up, Neville quickly kisses her cheek, stammering a 'good luck.'

Aurelia blushes as she thanks him before following Sprout out of the Great Hall. Sprout leads her down to the forest where Aurelia's supposed to get ready for the first task. Along the way, Sprout gives her some pointers and tips but they just float through one ear and out the other.

Everything around Aurelia seems so far away, she's walking but she doesn't feel the ground. It's weird and she doesn't like it. How the fuck is she supposed to fight a dragon feeling like this? Merlin, she's screwed. The feeling of floating and the sound of words that don't resonate completely in her brain lasts until she gets to tent, where it all seems to come crashing down on her seconds after Sprout gives her a pat on the back. Aurelia takes a deep breath, she still feels weird but at least she can feel the ground beneath her feet. It still feels blurry as Aurelia steps into the champions' tent, _I'm going to die_ , Aurelia thinks, _if I keep acting like this_!

As she expects, Bagman completely ignores her when she enters, he's too busy waiting for Harry to show up. Viktor gives her a curt nod and Fleur gives her a small smile as she passes them to sit next to Cedric. Neither Hufflepuff say anything as they wait for Harry to arrive so the first task can officially start.

"Harry! Good-o," Bagman exclaims happily, not even ten minutes after Aurelia had arrived.

"Come in! Come in, make yourself at home," Bagman says happily as though none of the champions have a chance of getting eaten by a bloody dragon. Aurelia rolls her eyes, wishing that something would happen to cause the tournament to cancel.

"Well, now we're all here, it's time to fill you in! When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different — er — varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too . . . ah, yes . . . your task is to collect the golden egg!"

"A golden egg? Is it our ticket to a chocolate factory or something," Aurelia grumbles sarcastically. Internally, she's freaking the fuck out because they want them to steal an egg from a fucking dragon! _What. The. Actual. Fuck_.

The sounds of a gathering crowd are soon heard and Bagman offers up the purple bag that Aurelia assumes are filled with the mini dragons. He hands the bag to Fleur first, saying: "Ladies first."

She pulls out a miniature Welsh Green with a number two around its' neck. Bagman goes to pass the bag to Krum but Aurelia clears her throat loudly.

"The fuck happened to ladies first, Bagman," Aurelia demands, her Scottish accent getting thick with irritation. _This is getting ridiculous_! Bagman chuckles apologetically and hands her the bag, she rolls her eyes at him.

 _Don't be the Horntail. Don't be the Horntail. Don't be the Horntail_. Aurelia withdrawals a tiny Hebridean Black with a number one around its' neck. _Oh no_ , she thinks, _not these fuckers_. Hebridean Blacks aren't as bad as Horntails but they can be pretty nasty. Not to mention, extremely territorial. A baby Hebridean had once wandered into the Almerry gardens and burnt Ellie's hand to a crisp for getting to close to it. They had to call upon the MacFustys to deal with it.

Krum gets a Chinese Fireball with a number three, Cedric gets a Swedish Short-Snout with a number four. Leaving the Horntail for Harry. How shocking.

Bagman explains that the numbers indicate which order the champions will have to fight their dragons in. Aurelia's first.

Fuck. She can officially say her and Harry have the worst luck in the entire world. At this very moment, she thinks, her luck's worse than his. Her throat constricts and her mouth runs dry, it feels like the tent walls are closing in on her. She's so not ready for this.

Before she knows it, the whistle blows signalling her turn. Cedric has to push her forward to get her to move, he reassures her that she'll do just fine but his words barely register in her brain before she's stepping into the enclosure — possibly about to meet her doom.

The Hebridean Black is on the other side of the enclosure, it doesn't seem to notice that she's there as it starts to curl around the eggs.

She raises her wand to put the dragon into a very deep sleep, completely unaware of the tail headed her way.

"Asterope," She hears Neville scream from somewhere in the crowd but it's too late — **_SMACK_**!

The tail collides with her midsection, sending to the ground. Her head smashes against the ground with a sickening crack and she cries out in pain. The dragon is now very aware that she's there. It stands up, feeling threatened, ready to find the source of the threat. It doesn't take long to find her, curled up into a ball, sobbing. Aurelia sobs as her head and stomach ache in pain. Agonising pain, her entire body feels like it's on fire.

She hears the sound of leaves crunching. The sound is sharp, like the leaves are made of glass and they're being crushed, there's a low growling, grumbling sound — _the sound of the werewolf_.

 _Oh, God. She's coming. She's right there. It's going to kill you_. Aurelia struggles to breathe, the sound of people screaming her name though distance tells her something's not right. _Not real_. No one should be screaming her name just yet. _Right_? Right. And those leaves shouldn't sound like that . . . _The werewolf isn't here. Can't be here. You're supposed to be fighting a dragon, not fending yourself from a werewolf. You're at Hogwarts. Remember. Remember_. Aurelia tries to breathe, tries to talk herself down, _the werewolf is —_

"Asterope! GET UP! GET UP," Neville shrieks loudly.

 _There's no werewolf because he's here. You didn't know him back when the werewolf attacked you. Remember. Do you remember. See, you're safe. Not in the forest, well not in that forest. Safe. No werewolf_. Aurelia looks up and everything's blurry but she can make out a dark shape looming over her and she panics. She lets out a terrified scream — _it's the werewolf_!

The fiery feeling in her body increases as does the fear for her life. The dragon goes to hit Aurelia with its' tail, this time on purpose. She's unaware of this as she tries to crawl away from the werewolf, _it won't go away — it must be real. It's back. Oh, God_. Suddenly the werewolf lunges for her, instead of attacking her with its' claws it attacks her with its' jaw. The werewolf's sharp teeth sink into her stomach and she feel the horrible pain of her flesh being torn apart.

 _Oh, Merlin_! She screams, _this can't be happening_!

The dragon's inches away from slamming into her when suddenly it recoils as if it's been burned. There's a small flash purple light that goes unnoticed by almost everyone. Aurelia swallows thickly, wait, she digs her fingers into the ground — _stones. Not leaves. Safe. The werewolf only scratched not bit_.

 _You are fighting a dragon not a werewolf — oh, shit! The dragon_! Aurelia bolts to her feet, not her best idea as it makes her incredibly dizzy. In the distance, she's vaguely aware of Bagman broadcasting about what a shit job she's doing — _dickhead_.

When she gets a good, clear but still rather blurry look at the Hebridean Black, it's angry, very angry.  
  
"Well, shit," She huffs, raising her wand. Aurelia blinks, attempting to clear her vision which is swimming violently. She feels so tired. Aurelia looks from the dragon to the nest, she wants to makes sure that when she hits the Hebridean with the spell that it won't fall on the eggs. Blinking twice more, Aurelia's positive that if she hits it now the eggs will stay safe and so she does, muttering: "Somnum Mortem."   
  
There's a greenish-white light that hits the dragon and the crowd falls into a stunned silence. They think she used the Killing Curse on the dragon, it looked similar enough. The only sound is the sound of Neville clapping and cheering enthusiastically.

As Aurelia had theorised, the spell doesn't effect the dragon as strongly as it had effected Ellie, Neville, and the House-Elves she'd used it on. However the fact the dragon went down with one hit makes it pretty convincing that she killed it.

Since it hadn't worked as strongly on the Hebridean, Aurelia can vaguely see her chest rising and falling, meaning it's possible it can wake up on its own, Aurelia wastes no time grabbing the golden egg. Before leaving the enclosure, Aurelia hits the dragon with the counter-curse. She stumbles back into the champions' tent not even bothering to see her score, she probably failed. Or got third place at most. Her vision's too blurry to read her score anyway, but the cheering she receives tells her she must've done pretty well.

Professor Sprout directs in the direction of the medical tent, telling her to go see Madam Pomfrey to be healed.  
  
"Oh, dear," Pomfrey sighs the second Aurelia steps into the tent. Pomfrey examines her, telling her that she's bleeding at the top of her head and her stomach which is something Aurelia hadn't even realised.   
  
A whistle goes off and Bagman announces that it's Fleur Delacour's turn. Pomfrey goes about healing her, ranting about the tournament as she does so but most of the rant goes over Aurelia's head. Even Bagman's loud commentary goes through one ear and out the other for the most part.  
  
" — it's not as deep as I expected which is good . . . There's a lot —"

Another whistle sounds, it's Krum's turn now. Meaning Cedric is next — a bright light invades her eyesight and the throbbing of her head dulls. A sharp pain stings her stomach and Aurelia yelps out, Pomfrey apologises as she goes about healing the deep gash on Aurelia's stomach. " — If the dragon caused this amount of damage on accident just imagine the damage she could've inflicted on purpose —"

Aurelia still can't believe she had been knocked down that quickly. She really isn't cut out for this tournament.

"It's a miracle you managed to stay conscious after receiving the blow to your head," Pomfrey comments then continues ranting about how much she despises the tournament.

The Chinese Fireball lets out a roaring shriek as Pomfrey hands her a potion for her headache. Bagman announces that Krum did very well or something along those lines, Aurelia's head is still swimming.

The fourth whistle blows and Aurelia's blood turns to ice. It's Cedric's turn. Maybe it's the potion that sharpens her thoughts or the fact she's extremely worried about Cedric's wellbeing but the crowd seems to be louder and more responsive this time around. Screaming and gasping with every move Cedric seems to make and Bagman's commentary does nothing to help her nerves.

"Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow . . . He's taking risks, this one! . . . Clever move — pity it didn't work!"  
  
There's a deafening roar from the Short-Snout and Bagman shouts: "Very good indeed! Now the marks from the judges!"

Minutes later Cedric enters the tent with a burned face, the fifth and final whistle sounds signalling the start of Harry's turn.

Aurelia questions Cedric if he's okay and he barely has time to nod before Pomfrey is swooping down on him to patch him up. Bagman narrates Harry's turn more enthusiastically than the others, favouritism much?

"Great Scott," Bagman exclaims, "He can fly — are you watching this, Mr. Krum?! . . . Look at that! . . . Will you look at that indeed! Our youngest champion is the second fastest to grab their egg!"

"Who was the fastest," Aurelia wonders a little too loudly.   
  
"You," Pomfrey answers.

Aurelia frowns, she can't have been the fastest. She felt like she had been lying on the ground for an hour at least "Really?"

"Yes, Bagman said you recovered within ten minutes and because of that rather impressive spell you were able to recover the egg in less than five," Pomfrey explains.

Professor Sprout comes bustling in "Mr. Diggory, congratulations on third place! Miss. Black, not that I am surprised, congratulations on —"

"YA GOT SECOND PLACE, BABY," Olivia exclaims as she flauntingly steps into the tent, Aurelia's other friends trail shortly behind her. All bearing the expressions of pride and concern.

Neville rushes to her side, concernedly rambling: "Ari are you — you alright! Oh, your head that looked — sounded like it hurt a lot and your stomach — oh! Ari —"

"Relax, Lover Boy! Our girl's totally fine," Olivia tells Neville, smirking.

I'm totally not, Aurelia thinks but nevertheless smiles and nods "I'm fuckin' peachy," she turns her hair a peach colour despite the fact the effort makes her head start throbbing again. It earns a laugh from all her friends so she thinks it's worth it.

"As you should be, you beat, Ced," Mari laughs.

"What! Holy fuck, I didn't even expect to survive this task let alone place higher than last."

Hannah laughs "Dumbledore gave you a higher score than Potter. He gave you a ten."

"What does he want from me," Aurelia mutters, it's too weird that Dumbledore put her before Harry. _Suspicious even_.

Sprout gives Aurelia a pat on the back, whispering: "After you receive instructions for the second task, Dumbledore has asked that you come see him in his office."

Aurelia frowns. Okay, she hadn't expected him to actually want something from her "Am I in trouble?"

Sprout shakes her head "I don't believe so."

 _How reassuring_.

Sprout heads over to check on Cedric, Neville grabs her hand, looking quite nervous.

"Hey — uh, Ari, did — did you want to may — maybe come to my common room to celebrate?"

Aurelia glances at her dorm mates "Do you guys mind?"

They grin, chorusing: "No, not at all."

"Sure, Plant Boy, that sounds lovely."

Neville grins goofily and Aurelia's heart skips at beat at the sight. Aurelia scolds herself as she looks away, she glances around the tent wondering if Noelle would be coming. The German girl doesn't end up showing her face and before Aurelia knows it, she carted back to the champions' tent where Bagman explains the next task. He tells them the clue to it is in the egg they've collected which should sound funny but to Aurelia, it just sounds foreboding.

And, Aurelia really likes eggs — despite often using the word to insult people — it's one of her favourite foods. So, why the fuck is she intimidated by this overgrown golden egg?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooop Dumbles wants to talk to Aurelia,,, looks like you've got a mystery on your hands, why does Dumbles want to talk to Aurelia and why does it lead me to the capitol of Angst City in the next chapter??? Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 7,261


	21. Fall Of A Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which aurelia black witnesses the lestrange trial and it's stranger than she imagined . . ."

****

**CHAPTER NINETEEN** :

 **019 ||** Fall Of a Star

* * *

**IT'S NOT THAT** Aurelia dislikes Professor Dumbledore, it's that she doesn't like how he looks at her. It's like he's a cat who's looking at a bowl of cream that's just out of reach. If she's being honestly, it bloody scares her. Aurelia can't understand why he always looks at her like that. So, to say that Aurelia doesn't want to meet Dumbledore after the day she just had is an understatement but she goes anyway. The sooner she gets whatever this is over with, the better. What exactly could he want with her?

It takes her an hour to get to Dumbledore's office. She had hid the golden egg in her dorm and on the way out she had been mobbed by a sea of cheering Hufflepuffs. Which is a lot harder to escape than it sounds. She hopes that Dumbledore doesn't keep her long as she would very much like to get to the Gryffindor common room as quickly as possible.

Arriving at the statue that guards his office, Aurelia finds a Chocolate Frog on it which she quickly stuffs into her pocket.

"Chocolate Frog," She says to the gargoyle which allows her access into the Headmaster's office. It's empty, she rolls her eyes, of course. "Wonderful time for a bathroom break, Albus," Aurelia mutters sarcastically to herself, looking around the spacious office.

Out in the open, Aurelia spots a Pensieve, her eyebrows furrow together. Perhaps this is has something to do with what Dumbledore wanted to discuss. Aurelia's familiar with Pensieves, she quite enjoys them. There's one at Almerry Castle that her and Ellie use often; Ellie for revising school work during holidays and Aurelia for storing away memories when they get too much for her to handle. Pensieves fascinated Aurelia but her favourite thing about them is they help her remember things like a normal person. Once she stores a certain memory away for safe keeping, it becomes less potent in her brain, it becomes blurry. It works like that for all her memories except the werewolf attack, that always remains burned into her memory. Even though she had stored that memory away she still remembered every single detail of what happened.

She had stored a lot of obscure but strong memories of her Aunt Bellatrix away for the Pensieve so they wouldnt' be so clear. That did the trick, even though they were still in her mind they weren't as clear. Aurelia loves that, loves not being able to remember everything down to the finest detail. Aurelia traces her finger around the basin, curiosity welling inside her. Did whatever's inside the Pensieve have to do with what Dumbledore wanted from her?

She leans closely, trying to get a good look at what's in the basin. Aurelia wants to see if she can find her memory self anywhere in it. She's got to be as she highly doubts Dumbledore would just leave his Pensieve out in the open knowing that he's got a student coming to speak with him. _That is unless he wants you too see it_ , a little voice in the back of her mind says, _what if he wants you to look inside it . . . Stop it, just wait 'til he gets here to find out_.

Noticing she's getting a little to close, Aurelia pulls back slightly, she still wants to see if she can catch sight of her memory self somewhere in the Pensieve. Fawkes stretches his wings, the abrupt fluttering sound in the eerily quiet office startles Aurelia and she lurches forward. She panics thinking that it's Dumbledore returning and she tries to pull away but when she had went forward her nose had touched the liquid — "Oh, shit!" — and before she can stop it, she's being pulled into the memory.

 _Today's really not my day_ , Aurelia thinks as she lands herself in a courtroom. She realises this must be what Dumbledore had wanted to discuss although she can't think of why but she does recall being in a courtroom once, Aurelia doesn't remember much else besides that it had been really cold and she didn't like being there. There's a possibility that this isn't the courtroom she remembers, Dumbledore's probably been to lots of trials but why would he leave it out when he wants to talk to her? Aurelia doubts it's a coincidence.

"Please, Dumbledore," Mae's voice pleads from behind her.

It's confirmed, this is the courtroom Aurelia remembers. _On the bright-side, you'll finally get to learn why you were in a courtroom but you'll probably get expelled for snooping through your Headmaster's memories_.

"Please . . . Please, sir. She's mentally ill, Azkaban will only make her worse . . . Can't she be placed somewhere else?"

Aurelia feels her blood run cold. _Oh, God, what the fuck did I ever do to you_?! This is her aunt's trial.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT," She screams, no one notices her. It's a memory, of course, they don't.

Why couldn't this have been Sirius' trial — Sirius didn't get a trial, Aurelia reminds herself, that's what Aunt Andy said. She takes a deep breath, ready to push herself out of the memory when:

"Mama?"

She freezes, turning in her seat ever so slightly to catch sight of her little baby self. She's incredibly tiny, Aurelia can't believe she went from being that tiny to being a fucking tree, she's pale and freckled and wrapped in a yellow blanket — she's still got that yellow blanket. Her baby self is half-asleep, her hair's dark red to match Mae's hair and her dazed, warm green eyes peer up at Mae curiously.  
  
Mae coos at her, smoothing down her red curls. Baby Aurelia gives a little yawn and grabs little fistfuls of Mae's blouse as she snuggles closer to her.

Is this what Dumbledore had wanted to show her? _Why_? Does he want to see how many emotional breakdowns he can give her in one year? Aurelia glances around the courtroom, there aren't many people there just yet so she assumes the trial must just be starting. She glances back at her baby self, she's fallen back asleep by the looks of things, which explains why she doesn't remember much of this as she does with pretty much everything else she remembers. Mae continues to run her nimble fingers through the baby's red curls.

"Mrs. Lestrange refuses any offer I've given her besides Azkaban. She keeps ranting and raving on about how guilty she is, she's turning the Ministry and the Aurors against any reason I have to give her a lighter sentence." Dumbledore replies.

Even though he can't see her, Aurelia gives him a weird look, why on Earth would he want to give Bellatrix a lighter sentence. Unless — _no, don't even think that_!

"But . . . But, Dumbledore. Sir, _you know_! Don't do this! You know — You know —" Mae whispers desperately.

Dumbledore holds up a hand and Mae's plea comes to a halt, she looks quite affronted that he had stopped her.

"I know, Miss. Macleod, I know." Dumbledore says calmly, "But, they'll never believe that, not with how she's acting. She's rather believable, isn't she . . . Mrs. Lestrange is far too gone in the eyes of the Minstry and the only acceptable place for her to go is Azkaban, so they believe. There's nothing I can do — or anyone for that matter can do about."

Bellatrix deserved the sentence she got, she deserved worse than that yet Albus fucking Dumbledore, of all people, was sitting around saying that she could have a lighter sentence?! What the actual fuck is going on? Is she missing something here? Her aunt had been, without a doubt, sighted fleeing the Longbottoms the night of the attack. She did the same amount of damage as the Lestrange brothers and Barty Crouch Jr. she certainly did not deserve a lighter sentence. So, how come Dumbledore thought that she did? Something's not right.

Mae scowls at him, saying nothing more on the matter as people start to pour into the courtroom.

"Is little Elias still asleep," Dumbledore asks lightly, changing the subject.

Mae gives him a dirty look before nodding "Aye, wee thing didn't get much sleep last night, he's afraid that the Aurors are goin' to come back. I wanted to leave him in Brysen's care for the day but the wee lad refused to go."

"Can't say I blame him, Brysen Macleod is a rather reckless character, if I recall correctly, he was never good with the younger students. That's why he didn't make Prefect," Dumbledore says amusedly. 

"He was never any good with my younger siblin's either. He's got a good heart, really he does, he's just not good with children no matter how hard he tries." Mae sighs softly, "He shouldn't never be in charge of wee ones for too long, especially not Ellie."

Aurelia glances back again. In the seat next to Mae's sits a sprawled out four-year-old Elias Black. He's out cold, his head is leaning against Mae's arm, his curly, long hair is masking most of his chubby face as he snores softly.

"Ellie'll sleep right through this, I'll tell you that. He only wanted to come because he knows he'll get to see Trix after this . . . He just doesn't know this'll be the last time he'll see her," Mae's in denial of what Bellatrix's done, Aurelia knows that, Mae's never been — would never be — one to let her feelings cloud her judgment so blindly. She must be in shock too.

Aurelia feels terrible for her, she can't imagine the pain Mae must be going through at this time, it'd probably make Aurelia very angry if she tried to. Look at all the pain, her aunt had caused. Aurelia hopes she feels bad for what she's done. She hopes it's eating Bellatrix alive as she rots in Azkaban.

"This is the first time Asterope's stopped crying since, well, you know . . . Narcissa gave me her for the day just so she wouldn't have to deal with the crying — Moody."

Mad-Eye Moody had slipped into the seat in front of Mae and next to Dumbledore.

"Macleod," Moody greets stiffly, "How's the lad? Is he alright, McCaffey got him good, didn't he?"

"Trix got McCaffey worse," Mae says blandly, "Ellie's fine, the spell didn't cause any lasting damage. Thank you for askin' Moody. I'm sorry about McCaffey."

"I'm sorry too, he had such potential," Moody says gruffly.

They don't say much else besides some solemn small talk here and there for the next ten minutes until Barty Crouch Sr. speaks: "Bring them in."

 _I think it's time for me to go_ , Aurelia thinks but she can't bring herself to move a muscle. She'd be lying if she said that this memory didn't captivate her in the least bit. Six Dementors glide in, flanking four soon-to-be prisoners. Three of which are her family.

She vaguely recognises the Lestrange brothers, she doesn't have the fondest memories of the eldest, Rodolphus — from what she remembered of him, he loathed her. The youngest, Rabstan or 'Uncle Rabby' as she and Draco and once called him, had been nicer to her, as far as she remembers. The two of them are easy to tell apart despite sharing the same eyes in both shape and colour, they've the same hair colour and almost the exact same hairstyle. Their skin's the same tan tone, Rodolphus' skin seemed to be marred with small scars while Rabastan's seemed to be smoother than a baby's bottom. Rodolphus was taller and thickset, he wears a blank expression on his narrow face while he confidently walks towards the set of chairs; Rabastan was the shorter, thinner one. He's not nearly as confident as his brother, his eyes dart nervously around the courtroom as he's guided to the chairs.

Then there's Barty Crouch Jr.; Aurelia doesn't have any distinct memories of him but he does have a familiar face — milky-white skin covered in freckles and straw-coloured, scraggly hair. He's the youngest of the group, Aurelia thinks he was the same age as Regulus. Unlike the others, he's putting on quite a show, kicking and screaming about how he didn't do it — he totally did.

Aurelia almost doesn't want to look at her aunt, it might make her cry. She does anyway, knowing she's going to end up in tears whether or not she looks at Bellatrix.

Her aunt, like herself, is quite tall. Aurelia thinks she's a little shorter than her, by a least a few inches. They've got the same heavy-lidded eyes but Aurelia's are wider in size, they're both blue, Bellatrix's eyes being a cool, grey-blue and Aurelia's being a warm, sky-like blue. They've got a similar face shape, Aurelia's face is more heart-shaped than Bellatrix, maybe that's because Bellatrix is very lacking of a literal heart. Even their skin-tone is the same, at the moment her aunt seems to be quite pale, almost sickly so. But, if she hadn't been surrounded by the Dementors, Aurelia's sure it's be the same pale-peach colour. Merlin, she hates how much she's got in common with this dreadful woman.

Aurelia tries to list their differences so she doesn't make herself too angry, she's light and curly-haired compared to Bellatrix's dark waves of thick, shiny hair. Her jawline isn't as perfect or as sharp as her aunt's. Aurelia's jawline is noticably sharp as Olivia loves pointing it, but compared to Bellatrix's jawline which — as Olivia would say: "Oh my god, you jawline could totally cut me in half!" — Aurelia's jawline would only figuratively give someone a paper cut. And then, Aurelia groans angrily, the bane of her existence — their body-shapes. Aurelia's biggest insecurity thanks to her mother's friends.

Aurelia's a fucking tree — an overgrown sunflower at the nicest, she's got no shape to her body, it's the straightest thing about her. She's got no boobs, no ass, and no hips. And this, in her parents' friend group was a big problem. How would she be the perfect Pureblood wife with a body like that, she may have only been a child at the time when this was discussed but her mother's friends were always predicting and making snide comments that she's going to grow into a terribly bland body.

Of course, she's a Metamorphmagus she can change that but it's not the same as actually having it. Like, how her aunt has it. Her aunt's got the perfect Pureblood wife body, she's got the epitome of a womanly body from the hips to the boobs and it pisses Aurelia off. Out of all the things she had inherited from her aunt, why couldn't it have been that? _Fuck you, genetics, fuck you_.

 _Okay, stop_. Pointing out their differences had only made her angrier — _wait, you've got better lips! Ha, take that Bellabitch_! Aurelia studies her aunt's stoic expression, her lips are pressed together tightly making them look non-existent what she could see of her lips are chapped and cracked. Aurelia's lips are fuller, she's got a cupid's bow — Lavender and Parvati had told her that when she had got stuck with them once in the Gryffindor common room. Her lower lip was bigger than her top lip which often makes her look like she's almost constantly pouting if she's not smiling.

The Dementors have glided out of the courtroom having chained the four to their chairs, Bellatrix leans back in hers, looking nonchalant as ever. Aurelia grits her teeth as an overwhelming anger takes over her entire being. How can her aunt just not feel bad, feel sorry for what she's done? How can — Aurelia's breath catches in her throat as Bellatrix looks at her, well not at her, but, it seems like it for a moment then Aurelia realises she's looking at Mae. The corners of her aunt's lips twitch upwards and her gaze softens ever so slightly before her stoic expression returns.

Crouch Sr. stands up and begins speaking: "You've been brought here before the Council of Magical Law so that we may pass judgement over you for a crime so heinous that we have rarely heard the likes of it within this court," he speaks loudly, trying to drown out his son's pleas.

Aurelia continues to look at her aunt, who's now tapping her slender fingers against the arms of the chair. Crazy bitch.  
  
"We have heard the evidence against you. The four of you stand accused of capturing Aurors — Frank and Alice Longbottom — by means of the Cruciatus Curse, believing them to have knowledge of the present whereabouts of your exiled master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named —"

Crouch Jr. screams his innocence yet again, cutting Crouch Sr. off. Aurelia notices that Bellatrix had stopped tapping her fingers and is now holding onto the edges of the arms so tightly that her knuckles have turned a ghostly-white.

Her expression once stoic and verging on bored had completely devoid of emotion, almost as if she's dead. Her eyes practically looked lifeless.

"You are further accused of subjecting their infant son to very same curse when they wouldn't give you any information —"

There are cries of outrage and Aurelia's entire body goes numb. She didn't know this. She didn't know. Neville had never told her this.

Aurelia chokes back a sob as she glares down at the four. Rabastan has the decency to look slightly guilty but that doesn't mean he feels guilty, Crouch Jr. screams that he didn't do it and Rodolphus looks extremely smug, a smirk on his face that says 'Fuck yeah I did it, what about it?'. Then there's Bellatrix, much to Aurelia's surprise, looks genuinely shocked but it's only for a moment before she regains her composure.

"You planned to restore He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to his full power and resume the lives of violence you presumably led while he was strong. I now ask the jury to raise their hands if they believe, as I do, that their crimes deserve them a life sentence in Azkaban."

Mae lets out a muffled sob from behind Aurelia as every single member of the jury raises their hand, the crowd around them starts clapping, their faces alight with savage triumph. Crouch Jr begins to scream as the Dementors reenter the courtroom to collect them, the other three rise from their seats quietly.

Bellatrix looks up at Crouch "The Dark-Lord will rise again! Throw us in —"

"MAMA!"

Aurelia freezes. Everything seems to stop, the crowd, her heart, even time itself. Her baby self had woken up, possibly at the sound of her aunt's voice, she's standing unsteadily on Mae's lap, trying to get a good look at Bellatrix.

"MAMA," She wails, "MAMA! MAMA!"

The crowd breaks out into a whisper, Mae pulls baby Aurelia out of sight but Bellatrix had seen her. She stands frozen, her face contorts in pain for a moment, her eyes glossed over and unfocused as she stares at Mae. Then like a flipped switch, her face becomes blank and she turns back to Crouch.

Her voice sounds different this time, it verges on fear, like she's trying to warn them "He will rise again. When he does he will come for us and he will reward us far beyond any of his other supporters. We alone were faithful. We alone tried to find him!"

The crowd jeers angrily as Bellatrix sweeps out of the courtroom. Her baby self lets out a muffled wail of "Mama!" but between the roaring crowd and the Crouch men having an heated family moment, it goes unnoticed.

"Take them away and may they rot there," Crouch Sr. declares as the memory starts to fade and Aurelia's suddenly lurched forward into a new memory.

She finds herself in front of what she suspects to be a holding cell.

"Mumma can we go see Ma now," A small voice asks. Aurelia looks down to spot a four-year-old Ellie.

He's peering up at Mae with wide, grey eyes, he pouts "You promised."

Mae smiles sadly "I did no such thing, Elias, I said I might see her and then you insisted on comin' with me."

"But you brought baby and baby doesn't even want to come all baby wants to do is drool and cry," Ellie complains, sticking his nose in the air.

"I was asked to bring her." Mae tells him.

His nose wrinkles "Why?"

She doesn't seem to have an answer for that as she turns to Dumbledore and a pink blob of a woman who's even shorter than Mae.  
  
The pink woman clears her throat "Dumbledore believes that these children will help keep Bellatrix subdued. She refuses to drink a Calming Draught and we don't want to bring a wand anywhere near her, who knows what she'll do if she managed to get ahold of it."

"Why does Bellatrix need to be 'subdued'? Why isn't she in Azkaban," Mae asks, snootily. Aurelia gets the feeling Mae doesn't like this woman.

Dumbledore answers this time "I've discovered a few pieces of startling information and I believe Bellatrix knows more of these matters —"

"And you actually expect Tr — Bellatrix to answer your questions?"

"I do not," Annoying pink lady answers, "But, Dumbledore thought if —"

"He got Ellie and Asterope involved they could be used as leverage. You're startin' to have a track record, Albus," Mae accuses.

"It's not something I enjoy —"

Mae snorts "Could've fooled me — well, let's get this on with I'm sure the Ministry is not thrilled wit' your decision to pluck a madwoman from prison on'y three days int'er life sentence."

"Of course, Miss. Macleod, right this way."

Annoying pink lady protests "But, Dumbledore, she shouldn't go in there! She's got no way to defend herself."

"Defend myself from what, Dolores. Bellatrix would kill you before she killed me. I'm useful to her and you, well, you — you're just a Half-Blood," Mae laughs haughtily, shocking Aurelia.

"You're a filthy Squib," Dolores counters.

Aurelia turns and punches the woman, her fist goes right through annoying pink lady or Dolores as Mae called her. She fumes as memory continues on, how dare this woman call Mae filthy!

"Dolores, please," Dumbledore says.

Dolores scowls but says nothing more. Mae sneers at Dolores, hugging baby Aurelia close to her chest and grabbing Ellie's tiny hand. She follows Dolores and Dumbledore into the holding cell.

Anxiousness takes ahold of her entire being, there's a soft buzzing filling her head. She suddenly doesn't feel all that great and it's all because of how Bellatrix, despite an obvious, nasty head injury, perks up instantly at the sight of the yellow bundle in Mae's arms.

Why is her aunt looking at her like that? Why does her aunt always look at her like that? As though Aurelia's the most important thing in the world — like shes' her own daughter. Aurelia chokes on the air. _No_. She can't be, Bellatrix had never pegged Aurelia as the type to have a kid despite being very motherly in her memories. _But, it's possible_.

 _No_ , she shakes her head but the insecurity is relentless, _you know that. It's always been possible. Deep down you've always known it could be possible — no. No. No. No_. Aurelia breathes heavily, _you know who you are and that is a Malfoy. That's who you are_.

Her mind's racing and she tries her best to focus on the memory in front of her. Ellie's smiling, shrieking excitedly as he toddles forward and Bellatrix tears her gaze away from baby Aurelia to give him a distracted but soft smile.

"Ma," He cries happily, hugging her leg. Ellie shudders, Bellatrix must be freezing from Azkaban; he pulls away from her, saying "Ma, you cold."

Bellatrix relaxes but casts Dolores a wary glances before whispering: "I know, baby." — Merlin, forbid she's caught showing affection to her adoptive son!

"Up," Ellie demands but she can't pick him up because of the chains.

Dumbledore takes a seat opposite Bellatrix, in between them sits a metal table upon which Dumbledore places a book he's pulled from his robes. Bellatrix tenses at the sight of it and Ellie's demand falls on deaf ears. Of course, Ellie being Ellie, decides to climb onto Bellatrix's lap all by himself.

There's genuine fear in her eyes but her face remains rather blank with the exception of her lips quivering. Still, when she answers, her voice is steady: "Am I supposed to know what that is?" she raises an eyebrow, giving Dumbledore an unimpressed look.

"It was found in your study at Lestrange Manor."

"Doesn't mean it's mine, Albus, does it have my name on it?"

There's a moment of silence, Dumbledore looks exasperated, Dolores looks furious, and Mae looks like she's struggling not to laugh and cry at the same time. Her baby self had poked her head out of the blanket, no doubt at the sound of her aunt's — _possibly mother. Shut up_. — voice.

"Mama," Baby Aurelia asks groggily.  
  
Bellatrix's demeanour changes drastically, Dumbledore asks once more about the book and Bellatrix denies that it's her book but less defensively this time. Her eyes are locked on baby Aurelia, who's staring right back at her with wide, tear-filled eyes.

"Mama?"

Dolores suddenly rips baby Aurelia from Mae's grasp and brandishes her in front of Bellatrix like she's some kind of weapon. Baby Aurelia lets out a sharp cry and Aurelia vaguely remembers this. She remembers someone had yanked her out of someone's arms, who until now, Aurelia had thought to be her mother's arms. She also remembers that it ends with her biting the person. Good, the pink bitch deserves it. Everything else about this is blurry in her memories.

"Answer his question truthfully, Lestrange!"

"Or what, Half-Blood? Are you going to hurt an innocent baby? That won't look good for your reputation," Bellatrix taunts, she sounds calm but she looks close to losing her shit. Her nostril are flaring as she breathes heavily, her extremely pale face had gained some colour. Aurelia's surprised her voice is that steady.

What's so important about this book anyway? Aurelia wonders. It's an old book, she recognises the name of the author: Ian Hattersley. His family used to be part of the Scared Twenty-Eight until the late eighteen hundreds when they started fraternising with Muggles and vampires. The book title is even more familiar to Aurelia.

**_Donum Vitaes: Wizard Kind's Greatest Defence Mechanism_ **

One of the nicknames Mae's given her, well the Donum Vitae part of it. She's never heard of spell called that before.

"Why would I lie about ownership of a bloody book? It's not my book, why would I waste my time reading about a dead magic, I was too busy serving the Dark Lord, I had no time to waste. Now could you please stop shaking her like that, you'll give her brain damage, Dolores," Bellatrix snaps, the last bit has a twinge of pleading to it.

"I have a very good reason for you to have used this book, Mrs. Lestrange," Dumbledore says.

Aurelia feels a hand on her shoulder and Dumbledore, the real Dumbledore, asks her to return to his office.

"To save —" Memory Dumbledore says but it becomes muffled as she's pulled out of the Pensieve.

Aurelia's quite glad to get out of the memory but at the same time she's rather nervous to face Dumbledore. At any point she could've left the memory but she hadn't because she's a nosy little bitch. She gives Dumbledore a flustered smile "Y'know the saying: 'curiosity killed the cat', sir?"

Dumbledore smiles amusedly "Curiosity is not a sin, Aurelia."

"I'm really sorry, sir! I didn't mean to look in. I was just glancing at it, y'know to see if I was in it, I thought this mighta had somethin' to do with why I was asked to be here and then Fawkes scared me and boom! I was in the memory. I could've left at any moment but I didn't and I'm so sorry for doing that."

"I am not angry with you, Aurelia, we are both at fault for this situation. I shouldn't have left the Pensieve open like that but I had some unexpected and urgent business to attend to and it slipped my mind."

Aurelia frowns "So . . . The Pensieve didn't have anything to do with what you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes and no . . . At first it had everything to do with what I wanted to discuss. Of course, I had no intentions of showing you the memories I was merely looking them over to see if my theory was correct. You see I believed that you had used similar magic on that dragon to the one mentioned in the memory but I realised while attending to my business that this can't be possible. Then I recalled Mr. Lupin mentioning you created your own spells, that made much more sense than you practicing such ancient magic." Dumbledore explains but Aurelia's still got a nagging feeling that he wanted her to see those memories.

"You . . . You want to know about my spell? Did the spell hurt the dragon? It — it wasn't supposed to!" Aurelia panics.

"The dragon is in perfect health, the spell you used has intrigued the Dragon Tamers. They say it'd be very efficient if they had that type of magic."

Aurelia blushes, she enjoyed the praise but she's definitely not ready to hand over the spell just yet, not even for Charlie "Well, I agree, it's a rather interesting spell I found in the library I can't quite recall the incantation but I do know the movement. You could check my library records if you must."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkle amusement "Cunning and clever, you are a lot like Bellatrix, she always knew how to cover her tracks even when she was a young girl."

She bites her lip, feeling very angry and scared at the same time, she's got so many questions running through her head. Why had she been in that courtroom in the first place? Why had Dumbledore wanted to get Bellatrix a lighter sentence? Why had he let that pink woman use her like that, more importantly why had it seemed to actually work?

"Sir . . . Is she . . . Is Bellatrix my real mum," Aurelia asks, voice cracking.

Dumbledore surveys her for a very tense moment. The sound of the gargoyle being moved is the only thing that could be heard, the longer he stares at her the more anxious she becomes. It's a simple yes or no question. Depending on the answer, after the shock sets in, a long fucking explanation as to why the fuck it was kept from her for so long.

"There's no easy way for me to tell you this —"

 _Fuck_. Her head is spinning, she can't breathe, she can't believe —

"You're parents didn't love you," Lyra says bluntly, cutting off Dumbledore as she saunters into his office.

"Not what I asked but thanks for statin' the obvious, Lyra," Aurelia snaps, hair turning red. She's so close to the truth and Lyra's getting in the way.

Lyra smiles sweetly but her eyes are narrowed dangerously "You want the truth don't you, Asterope Aurelia?"

Aurelia nods quickly, it's both a good and bad idea to have her Aunt Lyra deliver the news. She'll be quick and brutal about it, Aurelia wants the truth delivered quickly as possible but she doesn't want it to be delivered harshly.

Lyra's grin widens "Your parents didn't love you, they didn't want you. You were a girl and born sickly at that. You were a surprise . . . They were only supposed to have only one, a son — Draco. But, you came along, this tiny, sickly thing — your parents didn't even think you'd make it through the night."

"Y'know I think the answer I'd prefer is 'yes'." Aurelia quips weakly, she'd rather hear that she had a mother who had loved her than parents who loathed her — _why the fuck would you want Bellatrix Lestrange as your mother, what's wrong with you — oh, Merlin, you're horrible_!

Lyra rolls her eyes "They gave you to a House-Elf, whether it was because they didn't care what happened to you or because they didn't want to get attached to their possibly dying baby, I don't know. The House-Elf happened to be one that Bellatrix often called upon, I think it was our childhood House-Elf, Mumsie or Mimsie. She called upon it that night it was supposed to be dealing with you but it didn't want to face Bellatrix's wrath so it answered her call with you in its' arms. And —" she laughs coldly, "And my sister with her bleeding, fucked up heart took you in along side, Elias. You probably only survived the night due to her care. You were raised by her, you were named by her, you were cared for by her, she loved you with all her heart. She loved you so much I believe she would've died for you if it came down to it. It was sickening really. You were everything Bellatrix wanted, in her eyes you were her daughter but you're not her daughter."

Aurelia covers her mouth to hold back a sob, she had always know that she was never the golden child, never the apple of their eye but she never thought they didn't want her or they didn't love her at all. Lyra smiles as Aurelia's face twists in pain.

"I thought you'd be happy to hear that your mother isn't Bellatrix, Asterope Aurelia," Lyra says, her tone vicious.

"Well, I bloody would be if it hadn't been followed by a 'your real parents fucking hate you ha ha!' Lyra," Aurelia snaps.

"I'm just telling you the truth, my dear niece," Lyra laughs.

"Lyra," Dumbledore says warningly, "Why have you come here?"

Her parents hated her because she was a girl — _oh, Merlin_! — they let her unstable aunt raise her because they couldn't care less — _I'm asking again, Merlin, what the fuck did I ever do to you to deserve this_?! — her best friend\crush's parents were tortured into insanity by her aunt\adoptive mother — _this can't get anymore fucked up than this_!

Lyra gives Aurelia a dirty look, ignoring Dumbledore's question as she grabs Aurelia's crescent moon necklace "Bellatrix bought this for you. As I recall, she's got a matching one, I believe her's is a star with a little moon attached to it."

Aurelia whimpers, pulling her once favourite necklace from her aunt's grip. She feels a surge of anger for the piece of jewellery on her neck, she recalls Alice's reaction to seeing it and Aurelia sobs.

Dumbledore scolds Lyra for being so blunt then asks once again what Lyra's doing here. This time, Lyra responds but her response is lost to Aurelia. Aurelia is panicking, _this is all too much_. Is she Bellatrix's daughter or not, does she have to consider Bellatrix her adoptive mother like Ellie does. Bellatrix did the same thing for Aurelia that she did for Ellie, which should make her Aurelia's mother especially if Ellie thinks what Bellatrix did makes her his mother. _Doesn't it_? Aurelia doesn't want to consider that woman her mother.

Dumbledore dismisses Aurelia and she's glad for it, but she's delivered one last punch to her gut as Lyra smiles maliciously at her and says: "Bye, bye Asterope Aurelia, enjoy your little Gryffindor party!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [MAKE THEM GOLD BEST SCENES CH.10-19](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/641862464827473920/read-more-on-ao3-make-them-gold-the) made by me
> 
> Hello there, I hope you enjoyed Angst Central™!! I loved this chapter so much, like Mae, Bellatrix, Ellie, and Aurelia interacting is my favourite thing ever even if it happened in the past!!! Do you think Dumbledore let her see that on purpose, do you think he and Lyra are lying to her? How do you feel about Bellatrix's reactions during the memories and why do you think Dumbledore was willing to give her a lighter sentence? I'd love to know your theories, like please, they fuel me!! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> word count: 6,047


	22. Dancing Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which aurelia black realises her feelings might not be as platonic as first thought . . ."

****

**CHAPTER TWENTY** :

 **020 ||** Dancing Queens

* * *

**  
GOING TO A** party after you've just found out your parents had hated you and Bellatrix Lestrange had adopted you bloody well sucks. Going to a party you were invited to by Neville Longbottom after you've just found out your parents had hated you and Bellatrix Lestrange had adopted you sucks even more.

Aurelia feels completely drained after leaving Dumbledore's office, she just wants to get to the Gryffindor common room to see Neville but she also wants to go to her dorm and curl up in her bed and cry. She picks the option that involves Neville because it's the best option, of course, it's best option — it involves seeing Neville! She hopes that seeing him will cheer her up despite the fact she feels like she's drowning in her teen angst bullshit.

Neville knows something's wrong the moment she enters the room, she smiles but her brown eyes dart around nervously, she's shaking noticeably, and that necklace that's always around her neck isn't there.

She must've lost it while facing the dragon. Oh, she must be devastated, Neville thinks as he offers her some chocolate pudding which she actually declines. He knows that necklace was her favourite thing, he doesn't think he's ever seen her without it. Before he can ask if she's upset because her necklace is gone, Lee encourages Harry to open the golden egg and half the Gryffindors join in on the encouraging. Harry obliges their chants and opens the egg, it's not what any of them are expecting.

The golden egg emits a high-pitched shriek that makes Neville's blood run cold — his parents' screams echo in his ears. Fred demands that Harry shut the egg, hands clasped over his ears as he stands next to Aurelia, who's gone extremely pale, her eyes are wide in fright.

"What was that? Sounds like a banshee, maybe you've got to get past one of those next, Harry," Seamus theorises.

Dropping a plate full of sausage rolls, Neville exclaims fearfully: "They're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"

"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," George says.

"No . . . No they showed us the Unforgivables this year it — it can't be a — a coincidence," Aurelia stammers faintly.

Neville reaches out and grabs Aurelia's hand, she hardly reacts, she just stares blankly ahead looking as though she's seen a ghost.

"Well, I thought it sounded a bit like Percy's singing . . . Maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower," George jokes.

"You alright, Blue, you look a little pale," Fred wonders.

"M'fine," She mumbles unconvincingly. It's obvious that she's not fine and the egg did nothing to help her mood.

Fred doesn't believe her anymore than Neville does but he turns back to Hermione and offers her a platter of jam tarts.

Aurelia's taken to muttering something under her breath, Neville can't hear her over the noise in the common room, he squeezes her hand and she jumps out of her skin. Her eyes, wild and wide dart around the room; she looks like a caged animal. She breathes heavily than pulls her hand from his, turning on her heel to run out of the common room. Neville puts down the custard cream he had picked up.

Fred laughs, glancing at Neville and saying: "Just my little joke, Neville."

Neville's got no idea what he means by that, he doesn't wait for an answer as he follows after Aurelia and Fred returns to his conversation with Hermione. Aurelia hasn't gone far, it seems that she only left the common room to get some air. She's leaning against the stairs banister, sniffling as the Fat Lady asks what's wrong. Aurelia slips down to the floor, clutching her ears and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Ari," Neville says gently, taking a seat next to her.

"She's not here. She's not here. She's not here. She's not here," Aurelia mutters.

"Ari, no one is here," Neville tells her, feeling confused as he reaches out and touches her shoulder.

She flinches, arms flying up to defend herself, hitting Neville in the process.

"Ow," He hisses quietly, it hurt less than the time she punched him but it catches him off guard.

"Ari, you're burning up." He tells her, when he had touched her shoulder it had radiated so much heat that if it was possible he'd think her insides were on fire, "Ari, may — maybe you should go see mad — Madam Pomfrey, I think you — you're sick."

"I'm not sick! There's nothing wrong with me," Aurelia protests defensively, "I'm not sick, I'm not a freak! I'm not crazy! She was there! Really there!"

Neville's bloody confused "I didn't say you — you were crazy or a — a freak. Who are you talking about?"

"You don't see it — they never see it but it's there — she's there, I swear it's real! Sometimes I can even feel the pain. I'm not crazy, Goyle was there," Aurelia sobs, "It was like it was happening all over again. I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy. I'm not, Neville."

"You're not," He assures her, "You should go see Madam Pomfrey, maybe she'll know what to do."

"No. No. They — I've talked with Healers before, all they do is tell me that it's in my head and there's nothing they can do to help, it's too risky."

"Can't they just Obliviate these memories?"

"No, they said that Obliviation isn't a foolproof plan because sometimes a person can remember fragments of erased memories and that'll just cause more damage. It's even riskier for me, I've probably got what Muggles call 'Hyperthymesia' and it means that I remember better than most people, I have a higher chance of remembering erased fragments of memories and that could hurt me more than remembering the whole thing," Aurelia explains quietly.

She takes a deep breath "When this thing happens, it doesn't feel like it's a memory, it feels real, like the werewolf or Goyle are actually back and trying to hurt me again. Sometimes I can't even tell if it's fake or not and it's so scary but — but I'm not crazy, Neville . . . I'm not crazy?"

Neville shakes his head quickly "You're not crazy, Ari."

Aurelia leans her head on his shoulder, shaking badly as she yawns: "I'm tired."

"Then you should get some rest, I'll walk you back to your common room," Neville says softly, helping her up.

She gives him a weak smile: "Thanks, Plant Boy." 

* * *

* * *

" **ARE YOU ALWAYS** this miserable," Noelle questions Aurelia, an annoyed look on her face.

"I'm not miserable," Aurelia disagrees, looking up from a book on mermaids.

"You've been miserable these past few weeks," Noelle whines, "You did horrible on this first task but you should be over that by now."

Aurelia frowns, mumbling: "I got second place."

"Well, it's not first," Noelle hums.

Aurelia gives her a look, putting her book down "Well, it doesn't matter what I place in as long as I'm first to find the Triwizard Cup in the third task."

Noelle looks shocked by her retort.

Aurelia goes back to researching; she knows what the second task entails (full pun intended!) and that's fucking mermaids! Mermaids! Fucking wonderful, it's not like she's deathly afraid of water or anything! She's fucked.

Ellie had heard from George that the egg screams and Ellie — being a Slytherin — knew that the egg had something to do with the mermaids in the Black Lake. He had been right, Aurelia had put the egg in water and it had stopped shrieking and started singing. The clue had been in the song; the mermaids, from what she got from the creepy song, are going to be stealing any important object from her.

Aurelia doesn't give a fuck if they take her 'The Queen is Dead' record from her, she's not stepping foot in that lake and Aurelia normally never lets anyone fuck with her and her the Smiths' albums. She can't do this task, she's going to have to make an excuse to get out of it. The research is just in case they make her do it with a broken leg — yes, she's desperate enough to break her own leg just to get out of it. She really can't stand water, it terrifies her.

Noelle hits her shoulder, hard "You're doing it. Again. Stop staring into space, I am talking to you!"

"Sorry," Aurelia mumbles as she rubs her shoulder, "I've just been busy with the second task and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my hair and make-up for the ball."

Noelle snorts "You're not going to that stupid thing are you?"  
  
Aurelia's small smile turns right back into a frown "It's not stupid, it's the only good thing in this bloody tournament. I was going to ask if — if you wanted to go with me —"

"Why would we go together when you don't even want anyone knowing we're dating?"

"Okay, fair enough . . . We — we could say we're going as friends. Please, Noelle, it'll be so much fun?"

Noelle rolls her eyes "Why do you not want people to know you are a lesbian!"

Aurelia's heartbeat quickens "I'm not a lesbian."

Noelle gives her a look and Aurelia mumbles meekly: "I'm bisexual."

"Bisexuality isn't real," Noelle says coldly, "You can't like two genders at the same time, you can only like one."

"Actually lots of people are bisexual, it's very real. Thank you very much. Just because I don't want people to know I'm bisexual doesn't mean that I don't know that I'm bisexual," Aurelia says firmly.  
  
Noelle looks equally impressed and annoyed.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me, it'll mean so much to me," Aurelia tries again.

Noelle scowls at her "No, I don't want to go to that stupid ball with you and your ugly scars."

Aurelia's stomach drops as Noelle abandons her in the empty corridor. So, that's why Noelle doesn't want to go with her, it's because of her scars. Her ugly scars. _Oh_. She wipes away angry tears as she gathers her books into her bag and decides to go sit with the Gryffindors for lunch today. Instead of eating alone like she's been doing a lot these past few weeks.

"What's the special occasion, huh," Seamus asks as she takes a seat across from him, sarcasm drips from his tone.

Aurelia gives him a confused look "What're you goin' on about?"

"You never sit with us anymore."

 _Oh, that_ — "I've been busy," Aurelia mutters, not in the mood for another fight.

Seamus repeats her words in a mocking tone, Neville scolds him for it but Aurelia thinks he shouldn't. Seamus isn't wrong, she hasn't been sitting with them as much, nor with her Hufflepuff friends. It's not because she's mad at them or because she's blowing them off for Noelle, which is what they think she's doing because Noelle always comes and finds her when she goes off on her own. Aurelia just wants to be alone. But, she understands why they're angry, she's angry at herself; why is she like this? What's wrong with her?

"And when you do sit with us, you're always so miserable, it makes us miserable," Seamus complains.

Her mouth runs dry "I —"

She doesn't understand why she's so miserable all the time, she doesn't want to be but she can't help it. Aurelia certainly doesn't wan to make her friends feel as miserable as she does.

Ginny plops down beside Aurelia "Hey, guys! Whatcha talking about?"

She fixes the three boys with a hard glare as she aims the question at Aurelia.

Aurelia sniffles "Oh, we're just talk — talking about the Yule Ball."

Ginny's eyes light up "Oh, how lovely. I can't go but I'd love too, it sounds like it's going to be loads of fun!"

"It's the best part of this tournament," Aurelia tells Ginny, a small smile growing on her face.

Neville's glad that she's smiling about something. He misses her smile. He just wishes that he could go to the ball with her but she's no doubt going with her stupid girlfriend.

"Maybe someone'll ask you. Or you could ask Harry. As friends, that is," Aurelia says.

Ginny shrugs, a light blush colours her cheeks "I think Harry's interested in Wen Zhang —"

"Ooh, yikes. I know for a fact, she's going with Ced. They're a thing — sucks for Potter," Aurelia mutters, grabbing a muffin to snack on.

"Who are you going with," Ginny asks and it's Aurelia's turn to shrug.

"Oh — I — it doesn't matter," Aurelia stammers, her cheeks go red as she makes her scars go away.

Ginny goes to pester her, believing that Aurelia has a date but Aurelia gets up and promptly leaves the Great Hall, Ginny wonders if she had said something wrong.

Seamus scoffs, "Don't worry, Ginny, she's been a miserable twat pretty much all year, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I'd be pretty miserable if I was chosen to compete in a tournament that I wanted to nothing to do with and after getting tortured and almost killed by a Death-Eater! Do you bloody expect her to be skipping everywhere she goes or are you just an insensitive twat?"

Neville feels a surge of gratitude for Ginny for protecting Aurelia. 

"I —"

Ginny harshly glares at Seamus, calmly saying: "If I ever hear you giving Blue a hard time like that again, you'll regret it."

She then smiles, getting up and leaving the table. Neville gets up and follows her.

"Hey, Ginny, can — can I ask you something?"   
  


* * *

* * *

**AURELIA DOESN'T LIKE** this feeling — the feeling of feeling nothing at all. Nothing excited her anymore, not her friends, not the Yule Ball, absolutely nothing. All she feels is a dull ache of sadness that rarely goes aways. Occasionally she'll have moments where she feels happy but they're so fleeting.

It's gotten so bad she skips Potions to go see Madam Pomfrey, who confirms that Aurelia has depression but there's very little she can do to help. Aurelia's best bet is to get Muggle treatment as soon as she can. Madam Pomfrey gives her a pass for the rest of her classes, she assumes that Aurelia's depression is caused by the stress she's under.

Aurelia cries as soon as she's out of the Hospital Wing, she had hoped that there'd be nothing wrong with her. No wonder her parents never loved her, she's too flawed to be a good daughter — _there's always something wrong with me_.

Noelle's right, no one's gonna want to go to the ball with her; not with her scars and not with the fact she looks and feels so miserable all the time. It scares her how empty she feels about the Yule Ball now, she had been so looking forward to it, so excited to be the fucking dancing queen (even though she's not seventeen yet) of the Yule Ball and now there's nothing. Aurelia just wants it to be over and done with.

Earlier this afternoon, after being rejected by Noelle, the first person she had thought to ask was Neville. As friends, of course. Totally platonic. But, she had gotten distracted by Seamus.

So, Aurelia decides to ask him after classes. When the time comes for the task to be dealt with, she becomes a mess.

Neville looks so happy to see her when she enters the greenhouse where he's tending to some plants. "Hello, Ari!" He greets her happily, smiling so wide.

Her heart hammers in her chest. His smile is like the sun, it's so bright and warm. _Merlin, he's lovely_! Aurelia blushes "Hey — hey — hi."

His grin widens, he too blushes "Hi."

Aurelia bites her lip nervously, its' not like he's going to say no, he doesn't mind your scars — "Neville — I — uh, do you want to go to the ball with me — as friends!"

Neville frowns.

 _Oh, no_!

"I can't —"

"I'll hide my scars! Please, I — I can't go alone," Aurelia pleads.

Neville nearly drops a plant in his haste to grab Aurelia's hands "It's got nothing to do with your scars. You never have to hide them. I'd love to go with you, I want to go with you but — but, well, I've asked —"

"Hannah," Aurelia sighs sadly.

"No! I don't like Hannah!

"Why don't you like Hannah," Aurelia asks, "She's lovely!"

"I — I like Hannah but I don't like-like Hannah," Neville says exasperatedly, _I like you, you daft egg! You oblivious fool! You buffoon —_

Aurelia rips her hands from his at his declaration but she quickly realises that Neville wouldn't use those insults even if they weren't used in a hurtful way. She had heard his thoughts. _Oh, no_!

"What," Neville asks, concerned.  
  
 _He likes me_ , she thinks, _oh, fuck! He actually likes me_. And then, she cries because why the fuck does he like-like her?! She'd thought it'd be nice for Neville to return her feelings ( if she has feelings for him that is ) but now that he does, she feels panicked. She can't understand why he likes her.

" _Why_ ," Aurelia blurts out, panic evident in her voice.

"Why what?" Neville asks, his tone matching hers because what did he do?!

"Why do you like me," Aurelia sniffles.  
  
Neville blushes, he rubs the back of his neck as he wonders what she means by ' _like_ '? "Because you're my best friend —"

"No . . . Why do you like-like me?"

"Oh, is it that obvious?"

 _When you have Legilimency_? Aurelia thinks, _yes_. But, she feels bad that she'd heard his thoughts so she just nods and smiles shyly.

Neville turns bright red but he confidently answers: "Because, you see me. You don't see me for my parents, you don't expect me to be like anyone but myself. And I see you, really see you for who you real — really are not how others or how you see yourself. You're wonderful and kind and amazing and so — so smart. I like you because you're you."

Her heart hammers painfully in her chest as she lets out a goofy, girlish giggle — he fucking likes her! And, she really likes him. _Oh, shit_. She really, really likes him, like she has feelings for him — _I've got to break up with Noelle_!

"Ari?" He questions nervously, her lack of response, despite the happy expression on her face, is unnerving.

"Uh, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool," She says, finger-gunning him, "Excuse me a moment!"

Then she bolts right out of the greenhouse.

"Oh, no?"   
  


* * *

* * *

**AURELIA'S WITNESSED HER** fair share of break-ups and they've ranged from good, to bad, to ugly but she's never, ever seen a break-up fail. She whimpers as Nolle grips her wrist tightly, she tries to pull away but Noelle's too strong for her.

"You're breaking up with me," Noelle demands acidly.

"You're hurting me," Aurelia spits, her tone matching Noelle's. She inhales sharply as Noelle's red-painted nails dig into her flesh.  
  
"What makes you think you can break up with me," Noelle laughs coldly, "Are you mad I won't take your pathetic, scarred-face self to the ball, huh, Wolfie? Did I hwurt your feelwings?"

"What did you just call me," Aurelia panics, she remembers Goyle — _oh, no! Oh, no_!

"You don't get to break up with me," Noelle growls, "And, certainly not for some lump of a boy —"

"Don't you dare talk about Neville like that," Aurelia snarls, hair turning bright red.

"Honestly, Aurelia, what on Earth makes you think he is worth it?"

"He likes me and I like him and I didn't — don't want to string you along."

Noelle's grip tightens "You actually think he likes you — oh, Aurelia, that's demented! Even that dope can do better than you! Look at you, you think that he is impressed! Ha, he doesn't like you —"

"He told me —"

"He's lying! Please, you naive bitch! You are a Black. He doesn't like you!"

Noelle laughs at the horrified expression on Aurelia's face. "Oh, don't think I don't know about your family history. I have done my research! He doesn't like you. At best, he's only friends vith you to make sure you don't go off your rocker like your cousin and aunt did. And at the worst, he's using you for revenge, he wants to destroy your heart like your aunt destroyed his parents."

"No, Neville —"

"You're safer with me. I wouldn't hurt you."

"You're hurting me right now and Nev — Neville wouldn't do that," Aurelia snaps, "Now let me go."

"You don't get to break up with me. Do you understand. I'll go to the ball with you, if that'll make you happy, I suppose I'm obligated to as who else will, but you must hide those ugly scars of yours," Noelle instructs, letting go of Aurelia.

Aurelia scowls but a part of her thinks Noelle's right, aside from Neville, who else would actually want to go with her? She bows her head, muttering: "Okay."

Noelle smirks, kissing Aurelia's cheek "It's a date then."

Aurelia's stomach twists painfully as she agrees distantly: "It's a date."   
  


* * *

* * *

**THE YULE BALL** is here before Aurelia knows it. Despite the fact it's Christmas, she's still sad — who the fuck is sad on Christmas Day? Is this depression really that bad?! Aurelia even finds herself dreading the event. What if Noelle doesn't like her dress? What if Noelle thinks she's a shit dancer? Aurelia's in a bad place, she's ninety percent certain that Noelle's abused her but she's scared to admit it, she's scared of Noelle. It doesn't feel right anymore, she doesn't want this relationship but Noelle won't let her go.

Her dorm mates, Mari, and herself had hauled themselves up in the Gryffindor girl's dorm to get ready for the ball. They'd been invited by Lavender who wanted help from Mari, who not only is the queen of art but the queen of make-up as well.

"You're a real life saver, Wilkes," Parvati's saying, "I could never do this on my own and neither could Lav — er, your friend's crying."

Mari sounds exasperated as she replies: "Yeah, she does that a lot. What's wrong, Blue."

"My dress doesn't fit me right, I left my magic foundation in our dorm and my brain's far too scattered for me to completely hide my scars," Aurelia sighs, sniffling. She'd lost an unhealthy amount of weight in the past two months.

"Here, let me shrink it, I know just the charm." Hermione supplies while Lavender suggests:  
  
"Instead of hiding them it'd be so cool if you put little flowers over them — ooh, or on both your cheeks like blush! Oh, that'd look so cute, it'd be perfect for your dress! Sparkly white flowers with sparkly yellow centres — can you see it! Oh, it'd be bloody adorable!"

The look on Mari's face tells Aurelia she had seen it. Once Mari's finished with Lavender's make-up she moves onto Aurelia to create the masterpiece Lavender had just spoke of.

Across the crowded dorm, Olivia's helping Hannah braid her hair while Hannah helps Hermione with her hair. Hannah and Mari are going together as friends and Olivia's going with Luna Lovegood — an odd pair if you asked Aurelia but Ginny had set it up after she had to reject Olivia's proposal to the ball. Ginny's going with Neville, he had asked her as friends after she had defended Aurelia from Seamus, it'd been his way of thanking her since she'd really wanted to go to the Yule Ball.

Lavender gushes over the ball, ecstatic comments are thrown around as they hurry to get ready. Ginny enters, wearing a floor-length, pale pink dress that Aurelia swears compliments her skin-tone perfectly.

"Oh, Ginny, you look lovely," Aurelia exclaims, Mari scolds her for moving.

Ginny blushes "Thank you and thank you for buying it for me."

Aurelia waves her off "No biggie, I thought it'd be much more fun for you to buy a dress than for your mum to surprise you with one."

"Fun is having to hold you back from clocking the salesperson for giving me that dirty look," Ginny laughs.

The others laugh as well and Parvati offers to do Ginny's hair. Parvati's good with hair, she'd done Aurelia's hair and Aurelia's very impressed with it — she's turned a section of her hair into a braided crown and left the rest in curls. Aurelia felt like princess with the hairdo. Mari finishes with Aurelia's make-up, she backs away and gives her friend a thoughtful look before taking her wand and casting a spell that conjures up little daisies in Aurelia's hair.

"Thanks, Mari! Now, should I go with a natural colour or stick with my normal blue?"

"Oh, love! Blue hair is like your thing," Lavender says, "Go with blue!"   
  


* * *

* * *

" **CHAMPIONS OVER HERE** ," Professor McGonagall calls out but still, Noelle's nowhere in sight.

All the other champions have gathered with their dates but Aurelia stands timidly by herself.  
  
"Miss. Black, where's your date?"

Aurelia feels small under McGonagall's hard gaze, stammering: "I — I don't know. I — I think I've been stood up."

McGonagall's gaze softens "The champions must have the first dance, it is tradition. Is there anyone you can dance with —"

"Neville Longbottom," Aurelia answers without hesitation, "That is if his own date can still attend."

McGonagall pales "Yes, yes, Miss. Weasley can still attend, you only need Mr. Longbottom for the opening dance. I'll go collect him now."

Aurelia feels both relieved and embarrassed that Noelle had stood her up. On one hand, she feels like she's done something wrong and that she's a shit date and on the other, she doesn't have to worry about being pretty enough for Noelle and she gets to dance with Neville.

McGonagall returns with a beaming Neville in tow. He stumbles over to her and they link arms as he asks if she's alright.

She beams back at him, her cheeks grow hot as she replies: "I'm alright, I get to be a dancing queen with you."

The champions are brought up to the top table, Percy offers her a seat next to him then does the same for Harry. Percy goes on about a promotion and normally Aurelia'd listen but now she's too busy stealing glances at Neville — _he looks so cute in his dress robes_!

"You look beautiful, Ari," Neville says breathlessly but loudly, looking as though he'd struggled to get those words out.  
  
"You look pretty," Aurelia mumbles shyly, blushing.

"Oh — I — uh." Neville stammers then giggles quietly.

Dinner passes quickly and then it's time for the first dance. Neville wipes his sweaty palms on his pants before offering one for her to take. He nervously places a hand on her waist, grabbing ahold of her one hand as he rambles: "I've been practicing dancing for a while, I'm afraid that I'm not very good at it and even though I tried really hard to get better, I don't think I improved that much and I hope you won't mind tha —"

Aurelia squeezes his shoulder "Neville, not to be rude but, shut and dance with me — we can be dancing queens together."

"Wouldn't I be a dancing king?"

Aurelia looks him dead in the eye "No. There are only dancing queens."

Neville grins goofily and then spins her a little too fast for the slow, mournful song the Weird Sisters begin to play.

McGonagall and Sprout give them reproachful looks, they stifle their giggles into their shoulders as they slow down.

They begin to waltz gracefully across the dance floor. Neville's a surprisingly good dancer, not that Aurelia would've cared if he wasn't. She likes dancing with him regardless of the fact he occasionally steps on her feet. It's nice, she loves being this close to him, it's comforting, she likes the feeling of his racing heart against her chest, she wonders if he can feel her heart race too? She squeezes his hand as he spins her around. _This is nice_. Aurelia smiles and buries her face into the crook of his neck, pulling herself closer to him. _This is right_.

Neville spins her around, Aurelia hums along to the song and he smiles at her. She could get used to this, if she could learn to believe she deserved this then she could really get used to this.

"I promised Ginny that we'd save her a dance," Neville mumbles to Aurelia.

"Well, she is your date —"

"No, I mean the both of us, so — so technically the three of us have to dance together," Neville says, "I'm not sure how that will work but I did promise and honestly I don't want to find out what she'll do if I break that promise."

"We'll make it work," Aurelia says as she searches the crowd for Ginny and when she finds her, the younger girl is beaming so wide and bouncing on the balls of her feet. Almost as if watching Aurelia and Neville dance together was the best thing she had ever witnessed.

"She looks too happy despite the fact I've stolen her date," Aurelia laughs.

"She said yes to McGonagall before I could," Neville says earning a snort from Aurelia.

The first dance of a Yule Ball comes to an end and other couples begin to flood the dance floor, Ginny comes over to them immediately.

Extending both her hands, one to Neville and the other to Aurelia "Dance with me," she says seriously, giving them a slight curtsy. Both Neville and Aurelia laugh as they take her hand.

It's another slow song but they somehow make it work. Ginny twirls them both despite being smaller then both of them. The three of them dance together for at least three songs before Ginny skips off to go talk to some Ravenclaw boy.

The fast song that had been playing transitions into another slow song and Aurelia and Neville go back to dancing together, just the two of them. Aurelia's quite content, Noelle doesn't even cross her mind, nothing does. It's just her and Neville in this moment and it's blissful, she smiles as she and Neville spin around the dancefloor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ASTEROPE + NEVILLE AT THE YULE BALL](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ebd1dc0a637ac237ebc07f28008bb48c/678fc599e8831f46-03/s540x810/dbd1c47ee51cf9d08888015b10a8e6f35cd7e4ef.jpg) made by me  
> [ASTEROPE YULE DRESS DRAWING V.2](https://64.media.tumblr.com/f74c09871780ded83d028717820876f9/be3b481fb65ac841-ef/s250x400/caf61b8d99df1d4e8c245018d23988dce28ff10d.png)made by [bananawigglesworth](https://www.wattpad.com/user/bananawigglesworth) on wattpad  
> [ASTEROPE YULE DRESS DRAWING V.2](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e2a69ed20080d5c241988f9e9c0f733c/be3b481fb65ac841-aa/s250x400/885272e730b2e77f9798481e0a33e29987f504b0.jpg) made by [bananawigglesworth](https://www.wattpad.com/user/bananawigglesworth) on wattpad  
> [TREESTAR YULE BALL MANIP](https://64.media.tumblr.com/416fd42b8709a57cf698a6761a951408/be3b481fb65ac841-29/s250x400/0c1ee0735c737d2a45d430b755950bb16ce5f9fd.jpg) made by [bananawigglesworth](https://www.wattpad.com/user/bananawigglesworth) on wattpad
> 
> I can't believe I had TreeStar™ confess their feelings (even though it was technically just Neville cause Aurelia literally just forgot to tell him that she likes him back oops) for each other only twenty chapters in. This Yule Bale is a lot less hectic than it was in the OG or maybe the First Draft of Make Them Gold (for example: Aurelia clocks Seamus in the nose, which was iconic,,, r.i.p) and I lowkey feel bad but at the same time I just wanted to give TreeStar™ a nice, soft moment before I throw them into a whirlpool of chaos and angst Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!


	23. The Little Mermaid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which aurelia black doesn't want to be part of their world . . ."

****

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE** :

 **021 ||** The Little Mermaid

* * *

**THEY SPENT THE** entire night dancing, they hardly stopped at all and they were one of the last few couples to leave the ball. Still, Aurelia had felt bad that she'd robbed Ginny of her date but Ginny'd insisted that it was totally fine — Aurelia's bloody certain that Ginny would've been fuming if she hadn't of stolen her date. Aurelia and Neville did include Ginny in a few dances as they felt bad about leaving her alone, and Neville had promised her he would, that seemed to make Ginny's entire night.

None of their friends are letting them live this down though they insist they only went as friends — both of them are ignoring the fact that Neville had confessed his undying crush on her. Merlin forbid, their friends find out about that.

Unsurprisingly, Seamus is the worst, making kissy faces at them at every possible moment and even Dean had joined him. The two act as if Aurelia and Neville are the only people in their friend group with obvious crushes, Aurelia had seen the two of them sneaking in a slow dance. How the tables will turn when she pulls that card on them, Aurelia's just got to find the perfect moment to do so. She thinks she'll save that one for the perfect moment.

It's been a few days since the Yule Ball now, Aurelia sits with Cedric, the pair were looking for spells that'll help them with the upcoming task. The Bubblehead Charm had caught Cedric's attention while a spell that breaks bones had caught hers.

"Do you think Harry got my hint," Cedric wonders, pulling out his wand to practice the charm.

Aurelia snickers "No offense, Diggs, but 'go take a bath, it'll help you think' doesn't sound like a hint, it sounds kinda gay."

Cedric blushes "Well, what's wrong with being gay?"

"Nothing _buuut_ , when you're giving a hint you might want to keep the gay undertones to a minimum."

He rolls his eyes "Well, I couldn't just come out and say it — bullocks."

"Was that a pun," Aurelia teases.

He scowls "Shut up, you know what I meant."

"Nah, not really. Champions are free to divulge information with each other, it's getting information from others that's frowned upon. You could've just come right out and said it."

"Why didn't you tell Harry then, huh?"

"Ellie was the one who told me, he heard from George what the egg did so I figured Ellie had told Harry first." Aurelia says, "But, apparently not — hey, Diggs, do you think they'd make me do this with a broken leg?"

Cedric gives her a look "Blue, you've got to do this whether you like it or not."

"Okay, mum," Aurelia huffs, "Honestly, the next thing I know you'll be telling me to clean my room."

"Well, when was the last time you cleaned your dorm," Cedric teases.

"Oh no," Aurelia exclaims, hair turns black as she hides her face behind a book.

Cedric blinks, looking around the room only to spot Noelle walking by. He scowls, nudging Aurelia "Isn't she the one who stood you up?"

"Yes, now shut up. Tell me when she's gone."

It's a few minutes before Cedric's nudging her and telling her Noelle's left. Aurelia looks up, sighing in relief. She hasn't seen or talked to Noelle since the day before the ball. She's confused as to what Noelle's tactics are, she'd abused (Aurelia's pretty sure, looking back on it now, that she can use this word) her into staying together only to leave Aurelia stranded on the night of the Yule Ball. Cedric asks why she doesn't call Noelle out for her actions and in return Aurelia asks why he can't mind his own business.

He gives her a look, teasingly telling her: "Don't take that tone with me, missy!" then more seriously he adds: "I don't like when someone treats my friends like trash and I don't like when nothing is done about it."

"There's nothing to say about it, Diggs," Aurelia tells him softly, "I'm not at all bothered by being stood up, I am a little confused but I'm not angry enough to say anything . . . Don't give me that look, it's true, I don't care that much, I'm going to save my breath this time . . . Merlin, knows I'm gonna need it for this bloody task."  
  
She really doesn't care — or rather, she doesn't care enough. Aurelia feels very blankly about this whole matter, she knows and wants to feel more about it but she just doesn't. Perhaps, it's because she doesn't care all that much about Noelle, she liked the girl enough before they started dating, Aurelia was definitely attracted to her but after they started dating, anything Aurelia'd felt for the girl soon left. Perhaps, it's due to her Depression, she's not sure if Depression can do that to a person. Aurelia doesn't know much about Depression other than the fact that it makes her sad all the time no matter what's going on so she's not sure if that theory's possible.

Whatever the reasoning behind her feelings — or rather the lack of, Aurelia doesn't want to talk about it. She doesn't think there's anything to talk about and the fact that Cedric does irritates her. He means well, Aurelia knows that but the irritation bubbling beneath her skin is almost overwhelming, he always does this and you've never cared before; why now? She holds back her irritation the best she can, Cedric doesn't deserve to be snapped at for what she knows is his normal behaviour. He's only trying to help.

Aurelia takes a deep breath, shutting her book — _what the fuck is wrong with you_?! — that's enough research for today, Aurelia thinks.

"Well," Aurelia says, gritting her teeth at Cedric's worrisome look and standing up, "I've had enough of watching you practice that bloody charm, I think I'll go and clean my room now, mother."  
  
The joke rolls off her tongue, sounding funny to her but Cedric laughs.

"Don't lie to me, young lady! You're going to see Neville Longbottom, aren't you," Cedric teases right back.

Aurelia sticks his tongue out at him but her reddening cheeks betray her.   
  


* * *

* * *

**A WEEK LATER** , Aurelia sits in the Gryffindor common room after returning from a trip to Hogsmeade. She'd spent most of it in the company of Mae and Remus, who had offered her all the support and comfort they could but their efforts were for nothing because literally nothing can comfort Aurelia when it comes to that. Then after Remus and Mae left, she went and hung out with Neville and Viktor; he finally got to try Butterbeer. Hermione had passed by and Viktor had bought her a Butterbeer, insisting that she needed to try it although Hermione had already tried it lots of times before. Hermione didn't object and she joined them for drink, she ended up ranting about Ron to Viktor in away Aurelia had never heard her speak and Viktor offered her some advice.

Aurelia and Neville had been sworn to secrecy by Hermione not to tell a soul about their conversation that day, they obliged sort of scared of what she might do to them. Hermione quickly followed up with inviting Viktor and Aurelia to join S.P.E.W which Aurelia thought was a great idea so she had no qualms about being part of it but she thought that Hermione was a little off in her approach but once again Aurelia was a little too intimidated to say anything. The four of them ended up returning to Hogwarts together, and Aurelia had followed Neville and Hermione up to their common room instead of retreating to hers.

It's not uncommon for Aurelia to stay in the Gryffindor common room, she even knows most of the passwords, it's like a second house to her. No one bats an eye at the blue-haired girl in the Hufflepuff Quidditch sweater, legs dangling over Neville's lap in front of the fire. Both Neville and Aurelia, much to Hermione's chagrin, had stared at her and Ron as they left the common room with Harry, not too long after getting back.

"How's the second task coming along," Neville wonders a little while later, placing a flower crown on Aurelia's head. In response, Aurelia sighs dramatically.

"That bad, huh," He chuckles.

She sighs again.

"Any way I can help?"

"Bust my kneecaps," Aurelia replies dryly.

Neville gives her a horrified look "Why, I — wait! You can break your kneecaps?!"

"You — you didn't know that?"

"No!"

"Oh. Well, I've heard it's actually very painful."

"Then why would you ask me to do that?!"

"It'd get me out of doin' this task."

"You can't be seriously thinking of breaking your bones to get out a bloody task! Bones take forever to heal," Dean calls from the couch across from them.

Aurelia glances at him "Well, with magic it'll take days at most to heal and that's all I need."

Dean gives her a horrified look, asking if she's actually contemplating breaking her legs, Aurelia only smiles at him.

"Is the second task really gonna be that bad," Neville asks worriedly.

Aurelia leans over and whispers what the next task is into his ear. Neville grows pale, he knows how much she hates water.

"I — I could get you some Gillyweed, Lyra's got some in her Potions room at home," Neville whispers.  
  
"Thanks, Plant Boy, but I've got it covered," Aurelia whispers back, smiling gratefully.

"Hey, love-birds, mind sharing with the rest of us," Seamus grumbles from his spot next to Dean on the couches.

Before Aurelia has a chance to retort, Dennis comes bounding over, looking extremely giddy.

"I know what you are — a Metamorphmasis!"

He's too cute to correct, Aurelia just nods and smiles.

"Wow! Is it true that you can turn into a boy?!"

Aurelia nods and Seamus snorts in disagreement "No, you can't! You've never done that!"

She narrows her eyes "Yes, I can."

"Prove it!"

"I will!"

And, she does. It's been awhile since she's done it; give or take six years. It's a lot harder to do now, she's not as flat-chested as she used to be and Nym wasn't joking when she had said boobs are really hard to change. Even though Aurelia almost has no boobs to change, they still took the most concentration when she was trying to flatten and broaden her chest.

The last time, she remembers making herself into a boy she had been eight and wanted to play with Gregory Goyle and Adrien Wiltmire. As a child, she'd often make herself into a boy because she believed that it made her more like Draco, made her more lovable. It also became a joke between her and Draco, they convinced, Crabbe, Goyle, and Wiltmire that they were triplets and it went on for a rather long time. She quite enjoyed being a boy buy she stopped transforming when it became too hard to do. And doing it now, Aurelia realises just how much she missed it.

"There I did it! I'm a boy now," Aurelia says, giving Seamus a pointed look.

Seamus doesn't retort, he's staring at Aurelia, slack-jawed and Dean is too.

"No one says what I can or cannot do," Aurelia says, "You don't know what I am capable of, Finnigan."

Her voice is much much deeper and Scottish accent is much thicker.

Neville blanks completely as he studies Aurelia's new appearance, she — he? They? — looked much different than Neville had expected but still — still . . . He couldn't find the right word to describe it.

Neville turns red as Aurelia shoots him a very charming grin. Aurelia brushes her light brown curls from their face, their jawline is sharper, skin paler but it's more pink than peachy, their freckles had seemed to multiply; decorating their skin like stars. Aurelia's lips are thinner (Neville would like to say he didn't stare at her? His? Their? Lips often but that'd be a bloody lie) and their eyes a darker blue, Aurelia's hair is shorter, curlier, and a bit darker than its' natural colour.

Aurelia still looks pretty.

 _Oh sh_ — Neville swallows thickly, _Aurelia's still pretty . . . So pretty_.

Dennis bombards her with a whole load of questions and Aurelia tries to answer them as best as she can.

Neville struggles to breathe; Aurelia's still pretty even as a boy! What does that mean?! Merlin! Is he gay? No, he can't be gay because he finds Aurelia pretty as a girl as well — maybe you're bisexual! My mum was bisexual, Aurelia's bisexual! He's not sure, he's never paid much attention to boys except for maybe Ellie but Neville's certain that everyone's paid attention to him at least once in their life.

 _Or, you're bisexual and you've got a type_!

Neville's not all that bothered by his possible new found sexuality, his gran would be okay with it, everyone on his father's side would be. It's his mother's side he'd have to worry about, they're not very accepting but he rarely sees them. The only person he sees on his mother's side his is Great Uncle Florean but even then their visits are quite rare. Uncle Florean would be okay with that as he's the one who took care of his mother after her parents shunned her (not disowned, they didn't go that far, so they say) when she came out as bisexual.

"No — no, it's not easy — no, I cannot do that but Nym can — I — I don't mind being a boy, it's hardly any different from being a girl, although I do prefer being a girl 'cause it takes less concentration, I mean, I sup — suppose if I keep practicin' then turnin' myself into a boy would hardly take any effort — yes, I've done this before! When I was a wee thing, I convinced Crabbe, Goyle, an' Wiltmire that I had 'nother brother named Aurelius." Aurelia replies, still struggling to answer Dennis' onslaught of questions.

"Aurelius?" Seamus laughs, "That's way too close to your name, your parents would never do that!"

"They bloody would —" Aurelia stops herself, remembering that Bellatrix had apparently named her.

 _Oh_.

Something heavy settles on her chest, she feels her concentration giving way and she quickly refocuses it on keeping her ability in check but her hair still turns a blueish-grey colour.

"What did I say now," Seamus groans, annoyed.

Aurelia blinks "Huh? Oh, not — nothing, I just got . . . Really dizzy for a moment I haven't done this for awhile. It's really straining 'specially since I went all out this time."

"All out," Dennis echoes, "I — Is it really that hard?"

Seamus who had understood what Aurelia had meant, bursts out laughing and then Dean gets it, his eyes go wide, as he asks: "Did you — can you?"

"Go big," Aurelia winks, "Or go home."

Neville gets it now and he laughs nervously, blushing madly as he thinks: _How is Ari so pretty?! That wink — bloody hell_!

Dennis looks at them "What are you all laughing at?"

"Okay, why is no one asking the very important question here? Do I have to take one for the team," Seamus is laughing so hard, it's almost impossible to understand him.

Poor little Dennis still hasn't caught on "What question?"

Seamus takes a deep breath then screams: "HOW BIG IS YOUR DICK?!"

Neville and Dean laugh loudly as Aurelia looks Seamus dead in the eye and bluntly says:

"Bigger than yours."  
  


* * *

* * *

**THERE'S ONLY HOURS** left. Only mere hours left until the second task and Aurelia's freaking the fuck out, she's got to do it. She's got no choice, she can't bring herself to break her own leg, and believe her, she really tried. This leaves her no choice but to enter the Black Lake. If she drowns, she's coming back to haunt the fuck out of Albus Dumbledore, it's his ruddy fault that she's in this mess.

Aurelia shakes in fear as she ties her white hair up with a yellow scrunchie, the worst part is she's got no idea what's been stolen from her.

With a select few items such as her records, her stuffed yellow rabbit she's had since she was a little baby (his name is Raymoo and she'd literally sucker-punch a mermaid for taking him), and her Invisibility Cloak — all of which have been left untouched — nothing else she owns has any value to her, they're replaceable. She doesn't want to sound conceited but she's a rich bitch and she can buy everything she owns three times over. They're material items, she wouldn't 'sorely miss' any of those things.

She wonders if the person in charge of the second task had forgotten her object, perhaps Bagman's orchestrating this round, that'd be a likely theory. He always seems to forget she's in this tournament.

"Nothing I own really means anything to me." Aurelia groans to Susan.

Susan spits out a mouthful of toothpaste , she gives Aurelia a passive look "What about that necklace? Y'know that moon one you always wear?"

Susan's onto something, although Aurelia doesn't care about the necklace anymore, she reckons that it'd be the perfect candidate for her sorely missed object as she, for the longest time, would always wear it. She hasn't worn it in months and no one's noticed except for Neville. _That must be it! No, it's not it_. The necklace is right where she hid it, buried in the bottom of her trunk "Nope!"

"Invisibility Cloak?"

"Already checked, it's right where I left it!"

"Freddie!"

Aurelia pales, she hadn't seen Freddie all morning "Freddie?! Freddie Purrcury?!"

There's a scuffling sound as Freddie scrambles like a bat out of hell from under Aurelia's bed and rushes to her. The sleek black cat's back is arched high in the air as he scans the dorm for any signs of a threat to his owner. Aurelia sighs, reaching down to stroke Freddie's head.  
  
"Hey there, killer king. I was looking for you . . . Had me worried for a minute." Aurelia mumbles and Freddie relaxes into her touch, realising there's no threat he lets out a purr. "Nope, he's here. . . I'm going to head down to the Great Hall, see if Neville's got any ideas. I'll see you after the task."   
  


* * *

* * *

**NEVILLE ISN'T IN** the Great Hall and he doesn't show up to any of their shared classes, which causes Aurelia to worry. A lot. No one knows where he is or where he went, she wanted to test out her spell one last time before the task but she passes that opportunity to go find Neville. He's never disappeared like this, something must be very wrong.

She brushes off Noelle who finally attempts to speak with her — she's got to find Neville. She brushes off having lunch, and she almost brushes off Professor Sprout but she hadn't been able shake the older woman who had come to take her to the Black Lake.

Halfway there, Abigale Montgomery comes skipping up alongside of Aurelia, the Slytherin is wearing a beaming grin on her round, tan face. Abigale brushes her wavy, brunette hair out of her eyes as she greets Aurelia. "Wotcha, Malfoy!"

"Hello, Montgomery." Aurelia says flatly.

"You like D&D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini, and croquet. You can't swim, you can't dance, and you don't know karate. Face it, you're never gonna make it."

Aurelia gives her an annoyed look "I don't wanna make it, I just wanna —"

Abigale cuts her off, laughing loudly: "Oh, my God! I — I — I didn't think you'd act — actually respond with — with that!" 

"What the fuck?"

Abigale grins "It's a ref — reference from the future. Not sure what it's from or when it'll make sense to you but it's been in my head all morning. I thought it was perfect for your current situation."

Aurelia glares at her, Abigale giggles then turns on her heel as she leaves, she calls out: "Good luck." over her shoulder.

Sprout and Aurelia continue on their way down to the Black Lake, she's ushered over to the Judge's table where she's greeted by Cedric. He pats her shoulder reassuringly and she asks if he's up to breaking her legs; he's not — some friend, huh?

Fleur and Viktor give her pitiful looks but don't dare approach her, knowing that would only elicit a twenty minute long rant on how much she entirely loathes water and no one is in the mood to listen to that. Harry's nowhere to be seen, which means he's verging on being late.

Percy Weasley approaches her, he's here in Crouch's place, it seems.

"Are you alright, Blue," Percy asks quietly, he rarely uses that nickname; he must be feeling particularly sympathetic today.  
  
Percy, like the rest of Weasley siblings found out the hard way that she hates water. Fred had tossed her in a fairly deep pond alongside Ginny and Aurelia had lost her shit. At first the twins, Ron, and Ginny had thought she was just being dramatic until Percy had jumped in to save her. He ended up getting punched in the nose because she had been flailing so much.

Aurelia smiles brightly at him, tears burning her eyes.

"Thought so," Percy mumbles as Aurelia starts to cry.

"I can't do this," Aurelia tells him, "I can't, Perce, this is just too much. It's not worth it."

His eyebrows shoot up "I would've thought you'd think rescuing Longbottom was quite worth it."

Aurelia goes pale, they took Neville — _those fuckers_!

Somehow 'too much' just tripled. They can't expect her or Harry to be responsible for someone's life. They're much too young for the competition and they're definitely too young to be saving a person's life as part of a game. She knows that this wasn't permanent, she figured that at the end of the task she'd get whatever object they took from her back whether she rescued it or not but now this object is a person. A bloody person. So many things could go wrong with this. It's too much, what if Neville dies because of her. _Oh, Merlin_! Then she'd be just like her aunt.

"Oh no," Percy mumbles.

"Oh fuck," Aurelia mumbles.

Percy rambles nervously on about how he thought she knew what the task held for her, he's mortified. Aurelia's internally panicking, she can't do this but she can't not do this. Even if Neville's not going to be lost underwater forever, she can't just not rescue him. He'd do the same for her, she knows he would. She's got to be brave for her best friend.

Aurelia glares down at the water, she's going to kick the lake's ass and — _oh, Merlin_ , the thought of being submerged under those dark waves is nerve wracking. It's been so long since she's swam, does she even remember how to? That water is deep and dark and dangerous. Those mermaids could tear her apart with a blink of her eye, she doesn't stand a chance.

"I can't do this," Aurelia blurts out.

She can see it, it's blurry but she can see it. Gwendoline's face in front of hers, but there's something wrong with her face — it's contorting into Bellatrix's face but within seconds it's back to her own and it repeats over and over and over and over —

"Yes, you can. Have you got a plan," Percy asks, trying to sound reassuring.

Gwendoline coos gently, reaching out for Aurelia and there's the sound of running water in the distance and it gets blurrier as the reddish room swirls around in her mind and then next thing she knows is she can't breathe. There's something filling her nose, her mouth. Suffocating her.

"Aye, I've got a plan," Aurelia swallows thickly.

"And you've gone over every possibility?"

"Aye, naturally — every logical and illogical possibility there is."

She had but those possibilities had changed now that it's Neville down there. So many things could go wrong.

Percy glances around nervously before whispering: "Don't take the clue too —"

"Literally? I figured as much, I didn't think they'd let the mermaids keep the objects forever or at least I had hoped they wouldn't but now that I know that they took Neville, I know that song was all bark and no bite," Aurelia's got to do it, it's the right thing to do.

"If I die, Perce, I'm coming back to haunt Dumbledore and Bagman's asses. If anything happens to Neville, you better be ready to bail me out of Azkaban," Aurelia tells him, only half-joking.

"You won't die," Percy assures, "You'll do good."

Aurelia hugs him tightly but because Percy's technically at work, he doesn't hug her back. He pats her back awkwardly as she thanks him quietly. Harry arrives a few moments later, he's very late and Percy shrugs Aurelia off him to go scold Harry. Aurelia has a moment of horrid dread, realising that the second task will be starting shortly.

All too quickly the task is starting, Bagman (after he does his stupid, unfair little check up with Potter that is) counts to three to begin the task. The whistle echoes shrilly in the cold, still air and Aurelia feels numb. She hasn't even entered the freezing water yet and it feels as though her limbs are completely frozen.

Aurelia stiffly presses her wand to her throat, muttering her spell and it feels like sandpaper is coating her throat; she hates that feeling. But, it works. She peels her outerwear off, leaving only black nylons and a tank top and with that she's diving towards the centre of the lake.

She absolutely hates this, the water is so bloody cold it feels as though it's burning her skin. She hates the feeling of her body being completely submerged under the water, it feels wrong, it feels dangerous. What if she never surfaces again?

She swims quickly, for someone who hates water, she can swim surprisingly well. Aurelia keeps an eye out for mermaids and Grindylows, she doesn't trust either of the creatures.

She swims for a long time, her nervous are fried by the time the song reaches her ears. It's the song from the egg, this means she's close to finding Neville. Thank, Merlin!

Aurelia swims faster, swimming past what must be a welcoming sign for the Mermaid village drawn on the rock. Crowds of merpeople have gathered to leer at her as she swims past and when she finds Neville, he's asleep — must be nice.

He, along with Wen Zhang, Hermione, Ron, and Gabrielle Delacour are tied to a boulder of a merman. Harry's somehow already there but it appears he's got nothing to free Ron with.

Aurelia swims towards him and offers him a knife.

"Yoinked it from the kitchens this mornin'," Aurelia says as bubbles burst from her mouth, "Thought it'd be a good back-up plan in case my wand had trouble working underwater."

Harry who had been about to grab a sharp rock, takes the knife gratefully and heads for Hermione.  
  
Aurelia pulls him back "NO!"

She points at Ron "Him, I think she's for Krum. Zhang's for Ced, Gabrielle's for Fleur."

Harry stares at her for a moment, she prays that he's good at reading lips. A merman approaches them, he doesn't look very friendly and he tells Harry that she's right. Harry argues with the merman and Aurelia swims up to Neville, she wants to get back up to the surface as quickly as possible.

She pulls out her wand "Diffindo!"

The chains holding Neville sever, and she begins to lug him out of there as Cedric swims into the view. Normally, Aurelia had no probably dragging Neville around but now he felt like he weighed a ton.

As she swims up to the surface, she narrowly dodges a Grindylow. However, lucky for her, the Grindylow had been heading for an overwhelmed Fleur. Aurelia stops to help Fleur, which is no easy task. Especially when the Grindylows turn on her ("No, fuck off, I don't want to be part of your world!") and Neville but eventually she manages to get them away from Fleur.

She's now lugging an unconscious Neville and a very stubborn Fleur up to the surface. Fleur wanted to continue on with the task to rescue her sister and as much as Aurelia admired that, she thought the Fleur had been injured too badly to continue. When she finally breaks the surface, Neville wakes up and she's never felt more relieved. She reverses the spell and begins to tug Neville and Fleur to shore.

She's not first, Cedric is. He's already halfway to shore with Wen Zhang and surprisingly, Aurelia feels a wee bit dejected that she hadn't come in first.

❝My sister,❞ Fleur shrieks angrily in French, ❝I can't leave her, I have to save her!❞

Unexpectedly, Fleur dives back underwater and she takes Aurelia with her. Aurelia cries out in shock as water invades her nose and then her mouth. Panic fills every bone of her body and she sees Gwen\Bellatrix's morphing face leering at her — _No! No! NO_! — Neville pulls Aurelia back up and struggles to rein in Fleur. Aurelia starts to cry, she hates, hates, hates water.  
  
❝It's a ruse,❞ Aurelia exclaims, clinging to Neville with one hand and the other to Fleur, ❝The song was bullshit, your sister will be fine! She won't be gone forever,❞ She tugs them towards the shore, Fleur only calms down slightly as Aurelia continues to insist that no harm will come to Gabrielle.

They reach the shore just as Viktor appears with Hermione. Madam Pomfrey begins to fret over Aurelia and Neville, Fleur continues to fret about her little sister. Lastly, Harry breaks the surface with not only Ron but Gabrielle as well; much to Fleur's relief.

Aurelia feels numb both physically and mentally. This is too much. She can't do this any longer, she hates this tournament and she's not at all cut out for it. She wraps her blankets around herself and leans against Neville, who takes his blanket and wraps it around both of them. This tournament will be the death of her but, at least Neville is safe.

She feels something soft and warm press against her forehead and her heart skips a beat because she thinks Neville just kissed her forehead. Aurelia looks up at him and he's smiling almost cheekily at her and the sight makes her all tingly because it's such a cute sight.

"So, you sorely missed me, huh?"

Aurelia melts, if this had been a cartoon, she would've totally swooned right off her feet with a sigh. _Merlin, he's so lovely_.

"Perhaps," Aurelia mumbles teasingly, she feels so tired. Her eyelids are drooping and she can barely repress the urge to yawn.

"You did amazing, Ari," Neville tells her, beaming with pride.

Aurelia forces a smile on her face but she doesn't feel like she did amazing, she thinks she did a shitty job. She almost didn't save him because she's scared of water — _how shitty can you be, huh_?

Neville pokes her nose softly, startling Aurelia — _this is new_? — he beams at her "You've got a cute nose, did you know that?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I have a pinterest board for this story ( as well as for my others ) which showcases my graphics and aesthetics I've made for this book and also pictures I feel fit the characters of this story! Feel free to check out the board here: [Make Them Gold Pinterest Board!](https://pin.it/5V4jT9W)
> 
> The TreeStar™ moment at the end of this chapter made me so soft. Like,,, Nev being a brave boi, turning the tables on Ari and being the cheeky one (albeit still a little shy) and I'm so in love with TreeStari™ they're my soft, precious children. Poor Ari is going to need a therapist at the end of the year oof, can't wait for her to get the proper & professional help she needs to deal with her all her trauma and mental illnesses. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!
> 
> ALSO Aurelia says Gender: What's that? Another social construct? I don't think so, I can identity as whatever the fuck I want and so can everyone else!!


	24. Padfoot and Foxtrot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "aurelia, meeting sirius: daddy?  
> sirius: do i look like your —"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a non-graphic scene of attempted sexual assault at the very beginning! If this topic triggers you I suggest scrolling until you see the first gold line break or just skipping the chapter!

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO** :

 **022 ||** Padfoot and Foxtrot

* * *

**IN THE AFTERMATH** of the second task, things get worse. Despite being tied in first with Harry, Aurelia feels horrible. Her performance during the second task didn't deserve such a good score (the highest score came from Dumbledore which is bloody shady!) but a lot of people seem to think she does. She's gained quite a following from saving Fleur from the Grindylows and Aurelia knows that's a good thing but she doesn't feel like it's a good thing — she just feels so overwhelmingly sad and tired.

 _This tournament_ , she's concluded, _is going to be the death of me_.

When she had been selected, she had said she was too weak for this tournament and much too young. She couldn't handle the stress, she couldn't handle anything this tournament threw at her — mentally speaking. Aurelia's technically in first place so she's doing good but she's not doing good.

Aurelia's bloody certain she's not going going to survive the next task — she's genuinely frightened she's going to die doing whatever the third task involves. The third task is always the worst.

And to add the cherry of bullshit on top of the sundae of fuckery that's now her life — Skeeter put out another article about her. The article claims that her and Neville are dating and it included two photos of them that Aurelia can't exactly explain how Skeeter got them without coming up with a huge theory — she came up with two. Skeeter also attacked Hermione, the article about her is way worse than Aurelia's article.

Aurelia's beginning to wonder just how Skeeter is getting all this information, as far as she knows, Skeeter's been banned from school grounds. Which leaves two possible theories: Invisibility Cloak or Animagus. Skeeter being an Animagus is more likely; Dumbledore could've forgotten that fact, or perhaps her form was too small to spot, or perhaps she's an unregistered —

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little whore."  
  
Aurelia's blood runs cold at the sound of Noelle's voice.

"I'm not a whore," Aurelia tells her; she doesn't turn around, she's too afraid to face Noelle.

"Dating Longbottom while you are dating me makes you a filthy-blooded whore."

"I am Pureblood, thank you very much," Aurelia says defensively.

"Prejudice much," Noelle teases maliciously.  
  
"Says the one who called me filthy-blooded," Aurelia counters, turning to see that Noelle is stalking towards her.

Aurelia dumbly pushes herself into a corner to get away from Noelle, she quickly realises her mistake and moves to shoot past but, Noelle's arm shoots out faster and blocks her chance of escape.

"The article was fake and even it if wasn't I technically did break up with you," Aurelia says nervously.

Noelle laughs shrilly "And I told you, you weren't going to and what did you do? You obeyed like a filthy little mutt —"

"Get away from me."

Noelle's moving closer, Aurelia's pressed into the corner and she's trapped and she can feel her heart pounding in her chest, it's all she can hear, her palms become sweaty and her mouth runs dry.

Noelle giggles "Aww, is the wittle baby scared of me?"

To stop her lower lip from trembling, she bites down on it and shakes her head. Aurelia stares defiantly at Noelle who giggles again, her brown eyes darkening as they narrow.

"Are you sure about that, my pet," Noelle asks, breathless. There's a mad glint in her eyes that chills Aurelia to the bone.

Suddenly, Aurelia's painfully aware of Noelle's warm hand on her inner thigh. She inhales sharply "No!"  
  
Noelle laughs coldly "Oh, Asterope, you should know I don't take no for an answer."

Her hand slips just past the hem of Aurelia's skirt. Aurelia breathes heavily, gripping her wand tightly, she's got no choice but to use it.  
  
"Well, that — that's too bad 'cause your takin' it now — STUPEFY!"

The blast is so strong it knocks Noelle off her feet, she hits the ground with a satisfyingly loud thump. That's what she deserves for putting her hands on me without permission, Aurelia feels so angry and so scared at the same time.

"Don't you ever — ever touch me again or — anyone for that matt — matter," Aurelia snarls as she draws herself up to her full height, "No means no and I don't care if you don't like that, you ain't puttin' your hands on me with — without my permission!"

Noelle's quick to recover, standing up in a blaze of fury. Much to Aurelia's surprise, Noelle's hair turns bright red.

"HOW DARE YOU STUN ME YOU FLITHY-BLOODED BITCH," Noelle shrieks, drawing her wand, "CR — CONFRINGO!"

A blast of heat misses Aurelia's face by an inch, instead singing her hair and shoulder. She cries out in pain, stumbling to the side as she uses her wandless hand to brushes out any possible flames on her.

Noelle growls frustrated, her hair had returned to its' natural colour and Aurelia wonders if she'd just imagined it, she doesn't have time to ponder it as Noelle cries: "Flagrate!"

Aurelia's hit with a stream of fire that burns her arm badly, she screams "Sonofabitch — Flipendo!"

Noelle's knocked backwards and Aurelia flees.

She scampers down multiple corridors not slowing down until she runs into Harry.

Harry lets out a weird noise of surprise, stumbling backwards. When he gathers himself, he blinks multiple times and Aurelia assumes it's because of the state she's in.

A chunk of blackened hair, a singed shoulder, and a burned arm, she must look all sorts of weird. 

"Er — your blouse is on fire," Harry says awkwardly, pointing at her burned arm.

"Oh, ri — ri — right," Aurelia struggles to catch her breath, she starts patting her burning blouse to extinguish the flames, wishing that she could properly do "Aguamenti'.

"Are you alright? You, er, don't look to good?"

"M'fine, m'fine. Just tryin' out some — some new spells."

"Then why are you crying?"

"When am I — I not crying, Harold?"

Harry opens his mouth then promptly closes it because she makes a fair point. He glances around then hands in her a bit of parchment "Er, it's from Padfoot — Sirius — he wants to see you. He explains it in the letter. Just meet us in Hogsmeade and bring lots of food."

Aurelia reads the letter quickly, ignoring the pain in her arm and shoulder.

"Okay," Aurelia's nose crinkles in confusion, "But, why does he want me to come?"

The letter is pretty much just what Harry had told her, with a little 'P.S please bring Aurelia if you can' at the bottom. Harry shrugs, he's just confused as she is. Aurelia thinks of every possible reason Sirius could want her to come — the best, the worst, and even worse Seamus being right!

"You reckon, he really is m'dad?" Aurelia asks, nervously. That possibility is between the best and the worst. It'd be bad because Seamus'd be right but it'd be good because Aurelia thinks Sirius would be a good dad. He'd be a dad that truly loves her.

Harry shrugs again "Well, er, I thought he might've been but Sirius hasn't really asked about you and if you were is daughter, I think he'd be on my case more about you. Er, and I reckon he would've told me by now. I think he, well, I think he just wants to see some of his family. As far as I know, you're the only family he has."

That's not true, he's got the Tonks but Aurelia's not certain if any of them know of his innocence, but it makes sense.

 _You're a Malfoy_ , she reminds herself, _unloved and unwanted but, a Malfoy nevertheless_.

"Are you alright?"

Aurelia nods, smoothing out her skirt as tears run down her flushed cheeks, her voices cracks as she says: "M'fine."

Harry either believes her or realises there's nothing he can do and bids her a good afternoon, suggesting she go to the Hospital Wing to treat her burn.

Aurelia nods, bidding him a good day but she doesn't go to the Hospital Wing. Going to the Hospital Wing would mean, Aurelia'd have to tell Pomfrey what happened and she doubts Pomfrey would believe her.

She feels sick. No means no, it's such a simple lesson. An important lesson yet so many people don't understand it, she knows it's Noelle's fault. Noelle is the one who didn't listen, Noelle's in the wrong. But, she feels dirty. Aurelia feels dazed. The only sign that she's awake is the stinging on her arm and shoulder, she swallows thickly as her stomach twists violently. If she hadn't fought back, just how far would Noelle have gone?

Aurelia ponders whether or not she should tell someone. She looks at the thin soon-to-be scar on her arm from where Noelle had hit her with 'Flagrate' and worries that Noelle might try something like that again with her — with someone else. Aurelia had been lucky, she had been able to fight back but what if someone else can't because they're too scared or they don't see it coming all because Noelle can't take no for an answer like the shitty human being she is.

But, would anyone believe her? She's got proof that she got in a duel with Noelle but none that proves Noelle sexually assaulted her. No one would believe her about that; Dumbledore — the only person in this school that can do anything about anything — never believes her. He never believed her when she came to him in literal tears telling him that her parents would disown (to be fair, they didn't disown her — she disowned herself — but they weren't bloody happy) her when she had been sorted into Hufflepuff. He never believed her when she told him that Snape was literally bullying Neville and many other students. And, he'd never believe her about this.   
  


* * *

* * *

**NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM DOESN'T** like to hate people. He doesn't like the feeling of his twisting guts or burning in his chest that comes along with hating someone. He doesn't hate a lot of people especially not people his own age but, Noelle Edwyn Godwin is an exception.

He's never hated someone he barely knows more than he's hated her. He's tried to like her because Aurelia liked her but he just couldn't bring himself too. When he had first met her, he'd been more jealous of Noelle than anything but jealously quickly turned to loathing as she started treating Aurelia rudely and then Noelle had went and stood Aurelia up which had been the final straw for Neville.

There's something not right about Noelle and he wanted her to go away. He couldn't wait for this school year to end, because not only did that mean Noelle leaving, it would mean Aurelia would be happy again.

She's been so sad and stressed because of the tournament and when the school year ends so does the tournament and Aurelia will no longer have to worry about it and she can go back to be being her happy, smiley self.

Neville smiles at the thought of Aurelia being happy again, he doesn't like when she's sad. He just wants her to be happy.

"Hey, Neville, have you seen Blue today," Harry asks, entering the common room.

Neville looks up from his Transfigurations essay, shaking his head which earns a frown from Harry.

"Oh, never mind then."

"Why?"

"Well, she looked pretty bad earlier, she was on fire and she said that a spell backfired. I thought —"

"SHE WAS ON FIRE," Neville exclaims, jumping up hastily.

Harry's eyes widen at Neville's loud reaction and he stammers: "Well, only a little bit."

"AND YOU JUST LEFT HER?"

"Her blouse was on fire but she put it out and I told her to go to the Hospital Wing."

"And you thought she'd just go?"

"Well, I —"

Neville shakes his head disapprovingly and Harry's shocked, he's never seen Neville act like this. It's odd. Then again, Neville always acts odd when Aurelia's involved.

"I'm gonna go find her," He says, he looks very worried.  
  
Aurelia could be anywhere in the castle, Harry thinks so he stops Neville from leaving and pulls out the Marauders Map.  
  
Neville's too worried to question what Harry's doing or what he's using, in fact he seems to be a little irritated that Harry had stopped him. Harry quickly spots Aurelia on the map and she's not in the Hospital Wing.

"She's on the bridge," Harry informs Neville who's out the door before he can even finish the sentence. Harry tilts his head, wondering if Rita Skeeter actually wrote a true article, are Neville and Blue more than friends?

Neville hurries out of Gryffindor tower and down the corridor, he wonders what happened to Aurelia because he knows it's not a spell backfiring, Neville knows Aurelia and he knows something bad happened to her.

He's out of breath by the time he reaches the bridge, Aurelia standing in the middle of it, leaning against one side of the rail. As he approaches her, he notices she looks very ill, her hair is white and she's clutching the the top of the rail with both hands to steady herself; she looks like she's about to hurl.

"Ari," Neville calls out hesitantly but she doesn't respond.

He can tell she's heard him though, her hands fly up to her face as she furiously wipes at her face — she's crying.

He approaches her quicker "Ari, what's wrong? Ha — Harry told me you — you were burned, who bur — burned you."

Aurelia's lower lip trembles "Noelle. We — she — oh, we got in — into a duel because of Skeeter's art — article."  
  
Neville loathes Noelle.

"But, the article wasn't real and even if it was why would she care, she stood you up like a . . . Like a bitch."

He whispers the words 'bitch' even though he believes Noelle is the biggest bitch to ever exist.

Aurelia buries her face into her hands and sobs loudly, sinking to the ground. Neville sits down next to her.

"How bad did she hurt you?" Neville asks softly, placing a hand on her thigh and she flinches away from his touch.

"She called me a whore . . . Then she cornered me, well, I cornered myself because — because I'm dumb but then I tried to get away but she stopped me and then . . . Then she touched me, I told her 'no' and she told me she didn't care and she kept going further and I managed to grab my wand and I stunned her. I was so angry I — I told her no. I did. But, she didn't care. How could she not care, no means no. And I was so scared because what if I couldn't fight back how far would she have gone? And she got so angry with me and she hit me with some kind of blasting spell but it missed and then she hit me with 'Flagrate' and it hit my arm and then I knocked her backwards and ran away. And I've got no proof that she did that to me and no one'll believe me and —"

"I believe you," Neville says, he's shaking in anger but he does his best to keep his voice calm.

"I thought she was going to kill me for saying no," Aurelia whispers fearfully, pulling at the hem of her skirt.

"What do you want to do?"

"Huh," Aurelia blinks.

"Do you want to tell someone?"

Aurelia shakes her head quickly, chewing on her lower lip.

"Okay," Neville says softly, "Is there anything you want to do?"

"I want to get some food," Aurelia says, recalling that she's going to need lots of food for Sirius by the Hogsmeade trip.

Neville nods, holding his hand out for her to take "Let's get some food then."

She grabs his hand and he pulls her to her feet.

"How much food do you reckon Sirius Black would eat," Neville whispers and Aurelia looks at him in shock.

"Or is the food for you?"

"How do you —"

Neville gives her an almost cheeky smile "Lyra. She's been telling me Sirius is innocent for years. She mentioned that he's in Hogsmeade and that I need to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."

"And you thought that cause I — I want to get food that it's for Sirius?" Aurelia questions, wiping away some stray tears.  
  
"No, b — but, it reminded me," Neville replies sheepishly.

"So, Lyra knows that Sirius is innocent?"

Neville nods "She's been trying to get him out of Azkaban for years."

Then Neville whispers in her ear that he knows Sirius escaped because he's an Animagus, Aurelia's surprised that Lyra had actually told him this.

"She's an Animagus too." He whispers, "She was best friends with Professor Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter and they made this thing, Harry's got it? Have you seen it?"

"The map," Aurelia questions to which Neville nods.

"Yeah, that. She talks about that a lot — she's Foxtrot. It's a the name of a dance move but it's obvious what her Animagus form is, isn't it?"

Aurelia pulls her skirt down again, an absent-minded gesture as she says "I didn't know Lyra was that close with them, I thought she ended up in Slytherin like my other aunts."

"She must've still hung out with them, I don't know . . . She doesn't tell me a lot and she only talks about it when she's drunk so . . . .Do you want me to make you a peanut and jelly sandwich?"  
  


* * *

* * *

**BY THE TIME** the Hogsmeade trip rolled around, Aurelia and Neville had made enough food to feed an army. Neville doesn't go with Aurelia because according to him, Lyra doesn't want Harry to know that Neville knows of Sirius' innocence or that Lyra knows. Which, doesn't make much sense to Aurelia but, then again, Lyra never makes sense to Aurelia so she doesn't question it. It's just her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione going to see Sirius.

The four of them make their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out towards the edge of the village, Aurelia's sure none of them have ever been in this direction before. The winding lane leads them into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade, as they turn the corner Aurelia spots at the end of the lane, waiting for them, is a very large, shaggy black dog, which carries some newspapers in its mouth.

Aurelia knows at once that it must be Sirius Black. She realises she had seen him a few times last year, when he had wandered around the castle grounds. Aurelia had even given him half of her ham sandwich one time, believing him to be a starving stray. Still, Aurelia can't pass the chance to tease Harry as she recalls Divination from last year, she grabs ahold of Harry's shoulders.

"Oh, no," Aurelia gasps in a loud whisper, "Harold, it's — it's the grim!"

The three roll their eyes, fond smiles are plastered on their faces, Harry shrugs Aurelia's hands off his shoulders and moves forward to greet Sirius.

"Hello, Sirius."

The black dog sniffs Harry's bag eagerly, wags its' tail once and turns, trotting away from them across the scrubby patch of ground that rises to meet the rocky foot of the mountain.

Aurelia groans quietly when she realises they have to climb up the mountain: "Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw — Nimbus? No, well, maybe? Hey, Ron? What sounds better for my catchphrase: well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw or well, fuck me gently with a Nimbus?"

"I have no idea what a chainsaw is," Ron says.

"Why do you do need a catchphrase," Harry asks

Hermione begins explaining what a chainsaw is to Ron.

"Because I just do, Harold."

Harry gives Aurelia a blank look "Personally I think your silence sounds better."

"Oh, shit," Aurelia laughs, "I just got burned by a kid named Harold!"

"First of all, my name is not Harold and at least it's better than Asterope!"

They follow after Sirius, who leads them up the mountain, where the ground is covered in boulders and rocks. It's easy for Sirius to climb, with his four paws, but the four of them are soon out of breath, Aurelia and Harry can no longer be bothered to bicker and Hermione gives up explaining how a chainsaw works.

For nearly half an hour they climb a steep, winding, and stony path, following the black dog's wagging tail as they sweat up a storm underneath the sun. Aurelia's terrible dog puns do nothing to help the three Gryffindors but, Sirius seems to enjoy them, letting out barks in reply as though he's laughing.

Then, at last, Sirius slips out of sight, and when they reach the place where he had vanished, they see a narrow fissure in the rock. They squeeze through it, finding themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. Tethered at the end of it, one end of his rope around a large rock, is Buckbeak the hippogriff.

"Wait, he's alive! Buckbeak's alive, God bless," Aurelia whispers to Hermione, who nods.

"Yes, didn't Harry tell you, how else did Sirius get away?"

"I assumed on a broomstick, the little shit never mentioned Buckbeak!"

All four of them bow low to Buckbeak, after regarding them imperiously for a moment, Buckbeak bends his scaly front knees, giving them permission to pet him if they desire.

Aurelia gives Buckbeak a quick pat, cooing: "Ain't you the goodest boy? Aye, you are."

Then she turns her attention to her cousin, Sirius had transformed out of his Animagus state. Aurelia studies him for a moment, they look at lot alike — a tall build, skinny frame (which is probably due to malnourishment on Sirius' part), and the obvious Black family genetics. Aurelia looks more like Sirius than she does with her mum, dad, and brother. _Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with my genes_?!

"Chicken," Sirius says hoarsely.

Harry hands him his bag of food, Aurelia removes her backpack that's full of food. She had also charmed it with one of her spells to preserve the food inside it, the spell had originally been created to preserve the flower crowns Neville makes her but by accident Aurelia discovered the spell can also preserve food.

The spell preserves flowers forever whereas it only preserves cooked food for months. But, Aurelia knows that it will be enough for Sirius even if it's not permanent, there's enough food in there to last Sirius about six months.

"Thanks," Sirius says to Harry, tearing off a large chunk of chicken with his teeth, "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."

Aurelia hands him the backpack, stammering shyly: "Here, I — I taught myself the extension charm so there's a lot more food in there then you'd think. Also it's — it's preserved with a spell so the food will last you quite awhile before spoilin'. . . I'd say about six or seven months, so, uh, no more livin' off o' rats."

Sirius looks at Aurelia, his grey eyes go wide and he smiles softly at her "So you came, huh?"

Aurelia nods eagerly "'Course, I came — there's also a — uh, some clothes in there, Lyra gave them to me, well, uh, she gave them to Neville who gave them to — to me."

Sirius thanks her, tucking the backpack to the side as he grins at both Aurelia and Harry.

"What're you doing here, Sirius," Harry asks, grinning reluctantly at Sirius.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather, don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray," Sirius replies, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way.

Then, more seriously adds: "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter . . . Well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."

"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"

"You four and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus."

Ron nudges Harry and shows him a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Neville, huh," Sirius questions Aurelia, "That'd be the Longbottom's son, right?"

Aurelia nods, feeling a little intimidated by Sirius. She wonders if he thinks that she's as stuck-up as the rest of their family.

"Please tell me that he made some PB&J sandwhiches, Alice used to make killer ones!" Sirius pleads dramatically.

"I think he made a couple, we made a lot of food in the kitchens," Aurelia says quietly.  
  
Sirius sighs delightedly "I'm so looking forward to having one of those."

Aurelia grins shyly.

"You're a lot more quieter than I expected you to be." Sirius comments, "When you were a little baby, you were very vocal, you didn't cry much but you had no problem when it came to demanding things."

Aurelia goes to question just exactly how Sirius knew her as a baby but Harry cuts in with: "They're making it sound like he's dying but, he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here."

"My brother's Crouch's personal assistant, he says Crouch is suffering from overwork," Ron tells Sirius.

"Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close. The night my name came out of the goblet."  
  
"I'm pretty everyone looked like they were ill the night our names came out of the goblet," Aurelia says dryly, "They weren't bloody supposed to."

Hermione makes a snide comment about Crouch's firing of his House-Elf which earns as dark look from Ron as he infroms Sirius that she's obsessed with House-Elves.

However, Sirius looks interested in her remark.

 _Please, don't bring up S.P.E.W_ , Aurelia pleads mentally, glancing at Hermione. If she brings up S.P.E.W one more time, Aurelia might lose it.

Aurelia thinks House-Elves deserve better rights and treatment but she absolutely detests the way Hermione's going about it. She's scaring the House-Elves more than she's helping them. And of course, Aurelia did buy a button off of her because she supports Hermione's core idea about House-Elves deserving equal rights. But, Aurelia thinks that Hermione should have the House-Elves on her side which is the exact opposite of what the Gryffindor has, she's scaring them. You can't create a movement about or for someone if they're against the movement you're trying to make but, Aurelia's too intimidated by Hermione to tell her that.

"Crouch sacked his House-Elf," Sirius asks.  
  
Harry nods, launching into a long story about what happened during the Quidditch World Cup.

Aurelia pales, remembering her encounter with Goyle and Rowle. _Don't think about it_ , she tells herself, breathing heavily. _Don't fucking think about it_.

By the end of Harry's story, Aurelia's completely rigid and trying not to let the memories of that night take over her mind. She watches as Sirius paces the length of the cave, looking very thoughtful.  
  
"Let me get this straight, you first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?"

"Right," Harry, Ron, and Hermione chorus, Aurelia nods in agreement; her throat is too constricted for her to speak. Aurelia thinks she might cry if she tries to.

"But, Crouch didn't turn up for the match?"

"No, I think he said he'd been too busy."

"Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box," Sirius asks.  
  
Harry looks like he's got to think very hard before he responds: "Erm . . . No."

He explains that he didn't need to use his wand so he hadn't bothered to check.

Aurelia blinks back tears as Goyle's voice invaded her mind. _Go away, go away, go away go away_. She wants to clutch her ears to block out her voice but she finds herself frozen. _You're not here, you can't be here, you're not real_.

Hermione's indignant cry of "Winky didn't steal that wand!" startles Aurelia who lets out a quiet gasp.

She blinks again, _see, it's not real! But, Merlin, does it feel real_.

Sirius asks who else had been in the Top Box, Harry responds with the names of the people how had been in there.

At the mention of her parents, Ron exclaims: "The Malfoys! I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!"

"Anyone else," Sirius asks Harry.

"No."

"Yes," Hermione disagrees, "There was Ludo Bagman."

"I don't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps. What's he like," Sirius questions.

"He's a wanker," Aurelia says flatly.

"He's okay," Harry says, "He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament."

"It's 'cause you're the bloody Boy-Who-Lived," Aurelia mutters bitterly, glaring at her feet, "He wants you to live, that's why he's helping you either that or he made a ruddy bet on you."  
  
"Does he, now? I wonder why he'd do that?" Sirius says, for a moment Aurelia thinks they hadn't heard her.

"Says he's taken a liking to me."

Sirius turns to Aurelia "He's not helping you, is he?"

She shakes her head, scoffing: "He acts like I'm not even in the bloody tournament half the time."

Sirius looks thoughtful.

"We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared. Remember," Hermione says.

"Yeah, but he didn't stay in the forest, did he? The moment we told him about the riot, he went off to the campsite," Says Ron.

Hermione shoots back: "How d'you know? How d'you know where he Disapparated to?"

"Come off it! Are you saying you reckon Ludo Bagman conjured the Dark Mark?"

"It's more likely he did it than Winky!"

"Told you, told you she's obsessed with house —"

Sirius silences Ron, holding up a hand, asking: "When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?"

"Went to look in the bushes, but there wasn't anyone else there."

"Of course, of course, he'd want to pin it on anyone but his own elf . . . And then he sacked her?"

Hermione answers this rather heatedly: "Yes, he sacked her, just because she hadn't stayed in her tent and let herself get trampled —"

"Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!"

Sirius shakes his head, saying: "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

He runs a hand over his unshaven face "All these absences of Barty Crouch's . . . He goes to the trouble of making sure his House-Elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup, but doesn't bother to turn up and watch. He works very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, and then stops coming to that too . . . It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak."

"D'you know Crouch, then?"

Aurelia snorts dryly "He's the one who sent him to ruddy Azkaban without a trial."

Sirius face darkens, nodding in agreement with Aurelia.

"What," Ron and Hermione gasp while Harry exclaims: "You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not, Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know? He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic," said Sirius, "He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical — and power-hungry. Oh, never a Voldemort supporter! No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But, then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side . . . Well, you wouldn't understand . . . You're too young."

"People who were against the Dark Side were killed," Aurelia says darkly, finishing Sirius' sentence more than likely.

"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," Rons says irritably, "Try us, why don't you?"

Sirius grins "All right, I'll try you . . . Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing . . . The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere . . . Panic . . . Confusion. That's how it used to be."

Sirius pauses for a moment then continues "Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning — I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers — powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you — plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But, then something rather unfortunate happened . . . Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death-Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently, they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."

Aurelia gasps, she knows exactly where this conversation is going and she hates it.

"Crouch's son was caught," Hermione gasps.

"Yep," Sirius replies, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while . . . Gotten to know his own son."

"Was his son a Death-Eater," Harry wonders.

Aurelia stares at the ground intently, bitterly thinking, oh, yes he was, just like my crazy bitch of an aunt!

"No idea. I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death-Eaters, but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf."

"Did Crouch try and get his son off," Hermione whispers.

Aurelia scoffs silently as she recalls the memory she had witnessed in the Pensieve, fuck no. Tears burn her eyes as she thinks about the poor Longbottoms.

Sirius lets out a bark-like laugh "Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again — doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy . . . Then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

"He gave his own son to the Dementors?"

"That's right, I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though . . . They all went quiet in the end . . . Except when they shrieked in their sleep."

Aurelia's stomach twists painfully, she feels horrible for Sirius. She can't imagine spending a day in Azkaban much less twelve years.

"So he's still in Azkaban?"

"No, no, he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after they brought him in."

"He died?"

"He wasn't the only one. Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the Dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The Dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it."

Aurelia frowns, that doesn't sound right.

She recalls a time when she'd been about five or six and an Azkaban guard came to Malfoy Manor, bearing news that her aunt might've be dying soon and her parents would need to make arrangements for her body because they couldn't bury the body on Azkaban grounds. So, why didn't they do the same for Crouch? Did they run out of room?

Sirius continues on about Crouch and then Ron and Hermione start bickering about Snape.

Aurelia thinks of her aunt, wondering how she's faring in Azkaban and she knows she shouldn't care but she does. She wants to know, if maybe, she's changed. Dumbledore seemed to think she could change, he had been willing to give her a lighter sentence.

" — Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius says, "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death-Eaters."

Sirius holds up his fingers, ticking off names: "Rosier and Wilkes — they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges —"

Aurelia falls off the rock she'd been sitting on, Ron, Harry, and Hermione give her weird looks before returning their attention to Sirius.

"— They're a married couple — they're in Azkaban. Avery — from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse — he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater — not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble."

Ron and Harry bring up Karkaroff and his connection to Snape and Sirius questions them about it.

Aurelia frowns, more shaken up about the mentions of the Lestranges than she probably should be. She feels so fucking guilty and part of her realises it's a bit irrational for her to feel this guilty but she can't stop it. She can never stop it.

She remembers the time she had adored Bellatrix Lestrange and it makes her feel so bad because how could she love someone who hurt so many people. She remembers when she had hoped and prayed for Bellatrix to return from Azkaban — at the time she didn't know Bellatrix was in Azkaban, Aurelia just thought she had went on a really long trip — Merlin, she hates herself.

Sirius heaves a sigh, asking what time is it and Hermione replies with the time. He tells them that they best get back to school.

He gives Harry a particularly hard look as he says: "Now, listen . . . I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry says.  
  
Sirius scowls "I don't care . . . I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"

They all nod.

"I'll walk to the edge of the village with you, see if I can scrounge another paper," Sirius says, then transforms into his Animagus form.

They walk back down the mountainside with him, across the boulder-strewn ground, and back to the stile. Here he allows each of them to pat him on the head, Harry, Ron, and Hermione head off but, Aurelia stays behind.

"Sirius . . . Can I ask you something," Aurelia asks quietly.

The dog barks and leads her back to the boulders, he transforms back and says: "Ask away, Rory."

Aurelia frowns "Is . . . I know I shouldn't care but, is she . . . Okay? Has she gone mad in there?"

Sirius' face softens "Oh, Rory. It's okay to care, kid. She's your aunt and you were quite attached to her. It's not wrong for you to care."

"Has she gone mad in there?"

Sirius hesitates before shaking his head "No, I wouldn't say she's gone mad. She's still holding onto to what very little sanity she has."

"Do you think she's changed? Do you think she regrets what she did to Alice, Frank, and Neville? Does she have any remorse for her actions?"

"You blame yourself for what Bella's done, don't you?"

Aurelia doesn't answer.

Sirius grabs her shoulders, "You shouldn't. Listen, you'll be hearing this a lot soon but, believe me when I say that Mae completely changed Bellatrix for the better, and you and Ellie, you gave her something to fight for. Something to stand against Voldemort and she did for —"

"Then why did she do that," Aurelia snaps, "Why did she hurt the Longbottoms?!"

There's a long pause and Sirius gives Aurelia this torn stare. For a moment, Aurelia thinks he's going to to hit her with something Earth-shattering but then his shoulders slump and he frowns.

"I don't know — We don't know what made her do the things she did, but there was a moment where she tried to be good like you."

Aurelia sobs and Sirius hugs her hesitantly.

"You are not to blame for the actions of our family," Sirius tells her, whispering the reassurance in her hair.

"Are you my dad," Aurelia blurts out.

Sirius pulls away while laughing "Look, sorry, I don't mean to be rude but you are not my kid, Harry asked that too, I think, I didn't get to answer him because things got out of hand that night. I really don't mean to laugh, Rory, I'd be honoured to have a kid like you but I never got around to that, turns out my girlfriend was a Death-Eater —"

"What?"

"We don't talk about that, Rory, mistakes were made but she was a Yaxley —"

"Oh, I get it, Yaxleys are hot as fuck,"

"Right, er, this has taken a turn," Sirius coughs awkwardly but he looks to be faintly amused, "This was great bonding with you, dear cousin. And tell Ellie I said 'hi' and to write me back — and, no, before you ask, he's not my son. But I have written him but he's never responded, I'm beginning to think my dearest nephew is ignoring me!"

Aurelia nods her head, smiling "I will . . . Uh, thanks, Sirius, thanks for inviting me and everything you told me, it means a lot."

Sirius smiles back at her and gives her a salute "Of course, Rory, we black sheeps have to stick together."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [NEW MAKE THEM GOLD COVER](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/643051946272522240/make-them-gold-the-golden-trio-era-%F0%93%86%8F-can-be-read) made by me  
> [MTG Characters as the Can I Copy Your Homework Meme](https://aureliasblack.tumblr.com/post/643493769060237312/make-them-gold-characters-can-i-copy-your) made by me
> 
> At this point, Aurelia's mind is just half: "I am a Malfoy. I am the daughter of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy." and half "WHO THE FUCK ARE MY REAL PARENTS?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" and honestly that describes the very first plan for this story because I had no idea who I wanted Aurelia to be the daughter of. Speaking of the first basic plan, it's almost been four years since I came up with it! It's also been six years since MC ( and came back to life,,, wow,,, in between rewrites, MCR reunited what the fuck?! ). Also Spoiler Alert (but like not really): Aurelia is gonna witness a murder in the next chapter oof!
> 
> I'm curious, do you think Aurelia's a Malfoy and just having a minor identity crisis? Or do you think something else is going on? I'd love to hear your theories if you have any!
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!


	25. Murder Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which aurelia black witness a murder. unfortunately, this is the first of many . . ."

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE** :

 **023 ||** Murder Mystery

* * *

**ON SUNDAY, AURELIA** wallows the day away in self-doubt, not even bothering to get out of bed. Her dorm mates plead with to her to join them in their activities but she's much too tired. So, instead, she buries herself under the covers and tears herself apart with her own thoughts.

Sirius hadn't answered her question, of whether or not Bellatrix had changed or regretted her actions. The answer would never change what her aunt had done, it would still forever be a horrible crime. But, somehow knowing that she regretted what she had done would make Aurelia feel so much better. She doesn't understand why this piece of practically useless information would help her feel better but then again, she doesn't understand why she feels so guilty for what her aunt had done when she was a baby.

Her mind swirls into a deeper hole as she recalls the fact that Sirius knew her as a baby which is suspicious beyond belief. There's no bloody way the Malfoys would ever allow Sirius — a blood-traitor — near their children, especially with Voldemort in full power. . . Well, they did let her near Andromeda, but that was only for 'educational purposes' — to get her Metamorphmagus abilities in order, nothing more. And, of course, she only met Andromeda and her family after the war. But, Sirius, he had nothing to offer her so why would he have seen her as a baby?

If she had been raised by Bellatrix for most of her first year of being alive, then there'd be even less of a chance that Sirius would've known her. Unless, something else entirely different is going on. Perhaps she was Muggleborn, Bellatrix murdered her parents and couldn't bring herself to kill baby Aurelia and so she took her in. That's what her mother had thought Bellatrix had done with Ellie in the beginning. Or perhaps she was Regulus' daughter but that was unlikely although no one is really sure when he kicked the bucket, it was obviously some time after Ellie was concieved but who's to say he didn't live longer and had a another child. There were so many possibilities.

But, she had to tell herself no and that she's a Malfoy. She's not Bellatrix's biological daughter, she's not anything too important to Sirius, as he had said so himself — she is a full-blooded Malfoy. That's what she was born as, that's how she was raised, and that's how it's going to stay whether or not there's a trillion different signs proving otherwise — Asterope Aurelia Black is a Malfoy even if she doesn't use the name. She's a Malfoy. It was the only thing keeping her sane even if the Malfoys hated having her, she had to keep thinking she was a Malfoy to stay sane. Aurelia wishes she could go back to a time where she hardly ever doubted this, a time when she knew who she bloody was. Now, she's just confused; a lot had changed in a year.

She wakes up Monday morning, feeling like shit. She feels so dreadfully tired despite the fact that she's gotten way more than eight hours of sleep. Aurelia doesn't want to go to class, she just wants to stay in bed all day again, but, with great difficulty, she pulls herself out of bed.

Guilt and overwhelming sadness eat away at her as she showers and she just can't take it anymore. She digs her nails into the soft flesh of her arms, wishing to feel anything other than this. Aurelia hates it, she just wants to feel happy for once. Stumbling out of the shower, she reaches for her wand.

Madam Pomfrey had told her, warned her continuously, not to use the Cheering Charm. She had said that at this point, the charm would do more harm than good for Aurelia, once it wore off it would just leave Aurelia feeling worse. But, Aurelia doesn't think she can feel any worse than this.

She just wants to feel happy, even for a little while, and so she casts the charm on herself. The warmth of happiness envelops her immediately and it's glorious; Aurelia revels in it. No longer does she feel perpetually tired but energetic, she felt so alive and alert; it's thrilling. Aurelia wishes that Pomfrey had used this on her sooner, it feels amazing. Her guilt and sadness, all her worries have turned into amusing things — _God, I feel so alive_! — Aurelia wants this feeling to last forever.

Aurelia plans her outfit — it's cute and she looks like a sunset! She does her hair and she does her make up all fancy-like and for the first time in what feels like for ever, it doesn't feel like a chore to Aurelia; she actually enjoys doing it.

When she enters the Great Hall, her friends do a double take upon seeing the beaming smile on Aurelia's face. Seamus rubs his eyes in disbelief, Dean chokes on his pumpkin juice, and Neville can't tell if she's genuinely happy or if she's being sarcastic.

She doesn't look really happy, her face is flushed and her eyes are brighter than they've been in a long time leading many to assume she's very happy but it's the smile that gives her away — her smile is far too wide. It looks like her smile, the one that she gives to Lyra and Professor Snape, the one that Olivia calls her 'Sarcastic Smile of Death'. Something's off. Neville watches curiously as Aurelia approaches them, her rather long legs taking long strides as she almost skips over to the Gryffindor table. Perhaps, Olivia shared some interesting gossip with her this morning and she can't wait to tell them. Or perhaps, Lyra said something to Aurelia that had pissed her off.

"Good mornin'," Aurelia greets them cheerily, emerald green eyes sparkling with happiness, they're wider than usual and it reminds Neville of the younger Ravenclaw girl that Elliot often defends — Luna Lovegood? In fact, paired with Aurelia's strawberry-blonde hair, Neville thinks they could pass as siblings.

"Good morning," Seamus greets hesitantly.

Dean glances at his dorm mates than to Aurelia, asking: "Are you alright, Blue?"

"Aye, never better," She giggles, "I'm feelin' like I could take on th' world!"

Dean and Seamus share a look before looking to Neville: "What?"

"She said she feels like she could take on the world — did you — did you use the Cheering Charm?"

Aurelia grins "Aye, you bet your cute bahookie I did!"

'Bahookie?' Seamus mouths to Dean, who mouths back: 'What does that even mean?'

Neville's definitely concerned because he didn't actually expect her to have used the Cheering Charm on herself. She looks way more cheerful than she should be, when they had practiced the charm the previous year, it hadn't made them that happy. "How do you feel," He asks hesitantly.

Aurelia laughs boisterously "I feel great!"

Neville smiles softly, happy that she seems happy but worried that she isn't really happy. He worries that something might've went wrong with the Cheering Charm — oh, he hopes not. "Are you sure?"

Aurelia blinks then giggles again "O' course I am, Plant Boy! I have never been happier!"

"Mmm, sure, Blue," Seamus says sarcastically to which Dean shoves him lightly and gives his a scolding look but Aurelia doesn't take offense to his remark — she can't take offense to it — she just smiles her cute little smile and giggles her cute little giggle.

"Did you ask Pomfrey about this first," Neville asks fretfully.

Aurelia nods her head over-exaggeratedly "Aye, I did. Multiple times an' th' lass told me not to do it but I just couldn't take bein' so sad anymore! I didn't want to annoy Seamus anymore than I already have an' you know it's just too hard bein' so sad. I really couldn't take it so I did it anyway."

Seamus and Dean share another confused look, they're having a hard time understanding her today; her accent normally isn't this thick.

"Ari, if Pomfrey told you not to do it than you shouldn't have done it," Neville scolds her, he wonders if he should take her to see Madam Pomfrey.

"I did it anyway, I told you I didn't want to feel sad anymore I couldn't take it," Aurelia says firmly but the smile never leaves her face.

Neville goes to argue further, very worried about her mental state at this point but Aurelia's distracted by an owl — make that multiple owls.

"Oi, look," Aurelia exclaims, her green eyes going even wider as she points at Hermione. The three boys turn to look, Hermione's being swarmed by multiple owls and then they all look at each other, confused by the scene.

Aurelia's eyebrows furrow but her wide smile remains on her face as she says: "O' bullocks! Skeeter's struck again!"

Aurelia, herself, had gotten hate-mail, a handful letters from Merlin knows who when Skeeter had written that she was a werewolf. Aurelia had only opened one but only got through half the letter before tossing them all in a fire. They had brought Remus into it and it made her angry and she couldn't bring herself to read anymore, so up in flames they went.

Hermione's looked far worse than what Aurelia had gotten. Someone had sent her a curse of some kind, Hermione's hands began to swell up in a painful manner as she drops the one letter and hurries out of the Great Hall.

"Poor lass," Aurelia sighs but the wide smile is relentless, "The bitch, Skeeter is really gettin' on m'nerves. She's like a pesky little . . . Bug," She pauses and a dreamy sort of look crosses her features then "BUG," Aurelia exclaims suddenly, her hair going bright orange and her smile stretches so wide that it looks almost painful to Neville.

Neville looks at her confused then looks at his dorm mates, they look just as, if not, more confused.

"I knew it . . . That ruddy bitch is actually a bug," Aurelia exclaims, more quietly this time. Aurelia says nothing more on whatever she's talking about as she's distracted by a pile of chocolate chip pancakes.

* * *

* * *

**THE MORNING CLASSES** go by quickly and she's still so happy. And then, twenty minutes from lunch time, it's gone. It just goes away quicker than a blink of an eye. It doesn't wear off like it should've. Aurelia remembers clearly that it slowly faded when she used it last year but now, it just went away without warning. It shocks her, one minute she's light and happy and the next she's heavy and numb.

Aurelia stops talking mid-sentence "— _Oh. Oh no_."

Neville and Olivia look at her, did she forget the lame plant pun she was going to tell them even though she's told it a thousand times before?

Aurelia cries, clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs. She should've listened to Madam Pomfrey, it was worse. This is horrible, it's so overwhelming, her knees shake and she feels sick to her stomach. Neville places a hand on her shoulder and Olivia asks her what's wrong but to Aurelia it sounds muffled. She should've listened to Madam feeling of sadness is more overwhelming than ever before and it weighs heavy on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Professor Sprout sends her to the Hospital Wing, sending Neville along with her to act as an aid. Through blurry vision, Aurelia exits the greenhouse as she clings to Neville; she swears she sees a bug of some kind — she's can't make out what kind— fly out of Neville's hair and her stomach drops again.

When she'd had the 'epiphany' earlier about Skeeter, Aurelia hadn't thought she'd actually be correct because she's not that smart. But seeing that bug fly out of Neville's hair makes her think, she is. Aurelia hopes that she's wrong and Skeeter's just using an Invisibility Cloak because if not, Skeeter's going to have a field day with this.

"Oh no," She sobs into Neville's shoulder.

It seems to be the only thing Aurelia can say or think for the rest of the day. Especially after getting an earful from Pomfrey for using the charm in the first place.

The Cheering Charm is not meant to be used on a person suffering from depression, Madam Pomfrey couldn't give her a solid explanation as to why this is because she doesn't quite understand depression. She'd explained it being that depression effects a person much differently than other emotions such as sadness, angry, and annoyance which are the most common emotions that a Cheering Charm is used to fix. Since it effects a person different, the charm has to work harder to fix the emotion and sometimes the charm makes a person too happy and when it wears off the loss of happiness is hard blow, or sometimes it doesn't work at all. In other words, the Cheering Charm and depression don't get on well and Aurelia's an idiot for trying to make it happen.

Pomfrey keeps her in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the day, she doesn't trust Aurelia not to do it again and Aurelia can't blame her. Even though, Aurelia thought the feeling was the most horrible feeling in the world when the charm wore off, she's just that desperate to feel happy for just a little bit.

By the next morning, Aurelia's contemplating using it on herself again. She thinks she's going to need it if she's going to make it through the day without punching someone. The Daily Prophet is clutched so tightly in her shaking hands that it's slowly tearing apart as she reads the slanderous article written about her.

**THE MADNESS OF HOUSE BLACK**

It mostly slanders her aunt and cousin but it's about the 'breakdown' she had yesterday in Herbology. Which is overdramatised in the article, of course, Rita ruddy Skeeter would make her seem like she's lost her bloody mind.

Stupid bitch, Aurelia thinks angrily, you just fucking proved that you're an unregistered Animagus. She wonders just what to do with this information, there's no use telling Dumbledore because he'll either not believe her or he already knows. She should tell Hermione but she's probably already knows too. Aurelia's smart but Hermione's smarter, she probably figured this out ages ago.

She wants revenge, Rita's not only slandered her but her friends, Remus, and Sirius but, she's not so sure revenge would be worth it. After all, these articles about her are technically Skeeter's revenge against her mother and her aunts, maybe Aurelia should just let her have this one — "OH, FUCK THAT! This bitch just said I was as crazy as my aunt!"

Aurelia crumbles the article, slamming it down on the bedside table, she is so getting revenge. Someway, somehow, someday. Aurelia will take Skeeter the fuck out.

* * *

* * *

**AURELIA DOESN'T ATTEMPT** the Cheering Charm again, there had been times where she'd come close to it, so desperate just to feel light and happy again but then she remembers just how horrible she felt afterwards and manages to stop herself — days like today.

Sprout tells her that she's too head to the Quidditch pitch around nine to receive news about the third task from Bagman. Between the fact it's the third task and Ludo bloody Bagman, Aurelia really needs to be punched in the face with happy to withstand whatever she's going to be told tonight. She heads out with Cedric and they run into Harry in the Entrance Hall.

"What d'you reckon it's going to be," Cedric asks, trying to start a conversation as they head down the stone steps.

"Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we've got to find treasure," Aurelia adds.

"That won't be too bad," Harry says thoughtfully.

"What've they done to it," Cedric asks indignantly, stopping dead when they come across the Quidditch field, it's no longer smooth and flat. It looks as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.

"They're hedges," Harry exclaims, bending to examine the nearest one.

"It's a maze," Aurelia cries, she's seen Labyrinth once and she knows that mazes are not fun. Thank Merlin, she doesn't have a baby brother to worry about — _Oh, shit_! She has Ellie!

"Hello there," Bagman's annoyingly cheery voice calls out, he's standing in the middle of the field along with Viktor and Fleur.

"Well, what d'you think? Growing nicely, aren't they? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry, you'll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"

Aurelia stares at him blankly, did he not hear her seconds ago? It's not like she whispered it! Aurelia scoffs quietly, a scowl growing on her face.

"Maze," Krum grunts out, after a moment of silence.

"That's right! A maze. The third task's really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."

"We seemply 'ave to get through the maze," Fleur asks.

Aurelia frowns "Sounds fake . . . But, okay."

"There will be obstacles," Bagman says happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Ooop, there it is," Aurelia mutters.

"Hagrid is providing a number of creatures . . . then there will be spells that must be broken . . . all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champions who are leading on points will get a head start into the maze." Bagman grins at Harry and Aurelia (mostly Harry), "Then Mr. Diggory will enter . . . Then Mr. Krum . . . Then Miss Delacour. But, you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"

"No, none of this tournament has been fun. The third task is never fun, it's the most dangerous out of them all!" Aurelia snaps as her hair turns red and Bagman casts her a dirty look.

"Very well, Miss — is it, Black? If that that's how you choose you view this thrilling tournament than so be it, there's no reason to dampen the rest of our spirits." Bagman says sourly, "If you lot haven't got any questions, we'll go back up to the castle, shall we, it's a bit chilly."

They all hurry back to the castle, Bagman's beside Harry and Aurelia waits for him to offer Harry some unfair advice but he doesn't get that chance. Viktor taps Harry on the shoulder, and asks for him to take a walk with him. Although, Aurelia likes Viktor something about this causes alarm bells to ring in her head. Viktor's never interacted with Harry before, what if it's not Viktor, what if he's under the Imperius Curse?

She tells herself that she's just being paranoid but when Viktor leads him towards the forest rather than the Durmstrang ship, her bad feeling grows stronger. Aurelia tugs her Invisibility Cloak out of her messenger bag and covers herself with trails after them, unseen, she follows them past Hagrid's hut and the Beauxbatons' carriage only for Viktor to bloody ask "Vot there is between you and Hermy-own-ninny?"

Aurelia blinks, are you fucking kidding me, she almost screams. Merlin, she's been so paranoid lately, she hates herself. Viktor wouldn't hurt Harry and it's very unlikely that someone would control him to do so, what is wrong with her?

She needs a moment to catch her breath, before she heads back up to the class now knowing that Harry's fine. Viktor and Harry go back and forth about Hermione for a bit before Viktor finally relents and compliments Harry's flying skills.

Aurelia turns to leave, bragging to herself mentally about how Viktor complimented her flying skills first — _wow, calm down, Draco_! When the sound of a branch snapping catches her attention.

Harry must hear it turn as he drawls his wand out, and turns Viktor, who questions what's wrong, around. Aurelia grabs her wand as well, getting ready to tug her cloak off when Barty Crouch comes staggering out of the trees, he looks terrible. He was bloody, unshaven, and his face is all scratched up leaving Aurelia to wonder just how long he'd been in that forest. Something is terribly wrong.

Aurelia rushes forward, "Crouch, sir, are you alright!"

Viktor and Harry look startled by her appearance but they are more startled by Crouch, who is acting very strangely. Crouch pays her no mind, he seems to be talking to someone who doesn't exist.

"Vosn't he a judge? Isn't he vith your Ministry," Krum asks.

Both, Aurelia and Harry nod. Harry hesitates for a moment, then walks slowly toward Crouch, whereas Aurelia strides up to him, Crouch doesn't look at either of them, instead he talks to a nearby tree.

"— And when you've done that, Weatherby, send an owl to Dumbledore confirming the number of Durmstrang students who will be attending the tournament, Karkaroff has just sent word there will be twelve."

"Mr. Crouch," Harry says cautiously.

Aurelia places her hand on his shoulder but he doesn't react "And then send another owl to Madame Maxime, because she might want to up the number of students she's bringing, now Karkaroff's made it a round dozen . . . Do that, Weatherby, will you? Will you? Will —"

Crouch's eyes bulge as he stands, staring at the tree, muttering soundlessly at it then he staggers sideways and fall to his knees.

"Oh, sir!" Aurelia cries, trying to help him up, "What are you doing here? Did you walk all the way here? Did . . . Did someone put you — sweet Merlin!"

Crouch's eyes are rolling in his head.

"Mr. Crouch," Harry says loudly, "Are you all right?"

"Vot is wrong with him," Viktor asks, approaching Crouch with caution, his eyes wide in alarm.

"No idea," Harry mutters. "Listen, you'd better go and get someone —"

"Dumbledore," gasps Mr. Crouch, seizing a handful of Aurelia's robes, dragging her closer, though his eyes stare above her head, ". . . I need to . . . See . . . Dumbledore."

"Oh — okay, sir," Aurelia stammers.

"If you get up, Mr. Crouch, we can go up to the —" Harry says.

"I've done . . . Stupid . . . Thing . . ." Crouch breathes and Aurelia's stomach twists painfully as her mind goes to a thousand horrible different scenarios; none of which she likes in the least bit. "Must . . . Tell . . . Dumbledore . . ."

"Get up, Mr. Crouch. Get up, I'll take you to Dumbledore," Harry says again.

Crouch's eyes rolled forward onto Harry as he whispers: "Who . . . you?"

"I'm a student at the school," Harry answers, looking at Viktor for some help, but Krum keeps his distance, looking extremely nervous.

"You're not . . . _his_?"

Her heart gives a horrible jolt as her mouth runs dry "Sir, please tell me you didn't —"

"No," Harry says, but he doesn't know what Crouch means.

"Dumbledore's?"

"That's right."

Crouch pulls Aurelia closer, trying to steady himself to get a good look at Harry.

"Warn . . . Dumbledore . . ."

"I'll get Dumbledore if you let go of her," Harry says, "Just let go, Mr. Crouch, and I'll get him. . . ."

Crouch lets go of Aurelia and turns back to the tree "Thank you, Weatherby, and when you have done that, I would like a cup of tea. My wife and son will be arriving shortly, we are attending a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge."

Aurelia's frozen in fear, most of the worst case scenarios she's thought of involve Crouch's son even though he's apparently dead.

"Yes, my son has recently gained twelve O.W.L.s, most satisfactory, yes, thank you, yes, very proud indeed. Now, if you could bring me that memo from the Andorran Minister of Magic, I think I will have time to draft a response."

Harry tells Aurelia and Viktor to stay and keep an eye on Crouch while he gets Dumbledore but as he gets up to leave, Crouch abruptly grabs Harry's leg and pulls him back down.

"Don't . . . Leave . . . Me," He whispers, eyes bulging again, "I . . . Escaped . . . Must warn . . . Must tell . . . See Dumbledore . . . My fault . . . All my fault . . . Bertha . . . Dead . . . All my fault . . . My son . . . My fault . . . Tell Dumbledore . . . Harry Potter . . . The Dark Lord . . . Stronger . . . Harry Potter —"

It feels like the winds been knocked out of her lungs, 'escape' and 'my son' in the same incoherent sentence, oh, fuck no. Barty Crouch Jr. hadn't died in Azkaban, Crouch snuck him out somehow, oh son of bitch. Her mouth runs dry again, they're in danger. Everyone is in danger, it's like someone lit a match inside her, every part of her body feels like it's on fire. If Barty Crouch Jr. is really out there, so many people are in danger, he's dangerous.

"I'll get Dumbledore if you let me go, Mr. Crouch," Harry exclaims, looking furiously around at Viktor and Aurelia, "Help me, will you?"

Viktor helps pulls Crouch off of Harry who says: "Just keep him there. I'll be back with Dumbledore."

"Hurry, von't you," Viktor calls after Harry's retreating body.

A sound of a branch snapping hardly a minute or so later brings Aurelia to her senses, she looks around wearily "We should get him of here."

"He said to keep him here," Viktor says hesitantly.

"I don't think we're alone," Aurelia whispers, hair going white with fear.

"Vot,"

"I think his son is here."

"Vot is so bad about that," Viktor asks, looking away, more than likely trying to see if Harry was returning with Dumbledore.

"His son was a Death-Eater and he was thrown in Azkaban but I — I think Crouch might've let him out and he might've got a — VIKTOR LOOK OUT!"

A bright red light had shot out from the tree line, heading straight for Viktor — a stunning spell. The spell hits him and knocks him out cold. A deranged looking man, hardly in his thirties with straw-coloured hair steps into the light of the moon.

"A smart little girl, aren't you? Eh, Black."

"YOU," Aurelia screams, her wand flies up but her mind draws a complete blank.

Barty Crouch Jr. laughs, his pale, freckled face contorting into a frightening sight as his mad laugh rings through the air.

"Well, that's no way to greet your dear Uncle Barty, now is it?"

"You're not my uncle, you crazy ass bitch!"

"Well, if you want to be technical little Bella, I'm your honorary uncle." Barty laughs, arms at his side as he casually steps forward, "And technically, I honored myself with that title."

"Don't call me that," Aurelia snarls, shaking her wand at him, letting him know she's armed as her brain scrambles to think of some spell to defend herself. _C'mon think! Anything will do_!

But, he's turned his attention to his father, sneering down at the rambling senior.

"Don't hurt him," Aurelia begs, getting to her feet. Her mind seems to be doused in molasses, part of her mind is just screaming at her to stay out of it, out of danger. But, the other part wants to fight back, the part that seems to be frozen.

"Don't hurt him," Crouch Jr. mocks, pointing his wand at his father, "I waited years to do this — Avada Kedavra!"

"No!" Aurelia cries, a bright green light strikes Crouch Sr. and he falls silent and limp and dead and _oh, Merlin_.

Crouch Jr. turns on her and she jumps backwards, stumbling over her lanky, shaky legs.

"Oh, how righteous you are for being the daughter of a woman who murdered her own father," Crouch Jr. laughs, fixing her with a dark glare.

Aurelia blinks, Narcissa had killed Cygnus Black, her mother the apple of Druella and Cygnus' eye, had been the one to cut Gygnus' life short. Everyone knew he had died mysteriously but no one could prove who it was, found dead in his study at fifty-four in nineteen-ninety-two, aurors had suspected that it was Druella who murdered him with some kind of untraceable poison; they could never prove it. But, poison was Druella's specialty. Aurelia had only met Cygnus once and after that she was locked in her room whenever he visited. Her mother told her it was to keep her safe, Aurelia never understood that but she can see her mother killing him.

She raises her wand, blinking again, that doesn't matter right now she needs to protect herself and Viktor "St —"

"Stupefy," He exclaims, moving quicker than her.

The blast knocks her off her feet and she hits the ground, feeling extremely weak. Her head slams against something hard and sharp and she cries out in pain, the blackness that had been taking over her vision dissipates as a throbbing pain takes its' place.

"Don't kill me. Don't kill me, pl — please. Please, don't kill me," Aurelia begs weakly, tears burn her eyes and blur her vision even more.

Crouch Jr. laughs "Although, Gwen will be so disappointed in me, I'm not going to kill you. I wouldn't be a very good honorary uncle, now would I? Besides, I think you could be useful, you could be a talented and loyal Death-Eater, just like Bella."

Aurelia wants to argue that so badly but the words die in her throat before she can even open her mouth. _Stay quiet_ , her brain says, _stay alive_.

He laughs at the fearful expression on her face "No, Gwen's not here. I didn't want a massacre on my hands, if I'd of brought her she would've slaughtered both you and Krum and that would draw too much attention. Well, Krum would've . . . You. Not so much. You're nothing yet. But, you could be. Get rid of your strange infatuation with that Longbottom brat, and you could be the best warrior for my master's cause. You could be brilliant! Soon . . .Not yet so . . . For now — Obliviate!"

And the next thing she knows and remembers is being awakened by Mad-Eye Moody.

Her head throbs, what happened? Where's Crouch? _Dead_. Aurelia blinks, confused by that thought and shakes her head. No, Crouch can't be but, she can't see him anywhere.

"I vos attacked! Mr. Crouch or votever his name —" Krum is saying but he's interrupted by somone whom Aurelia assumes is Karkaroff.

"Crouch attacked you? Crouch attacked you? The Triwizard judge?!"

Aurelia clutches her head, his roaring voice causes her head to throb painfully. She can't remember. This has never happened to her before. She's never not remembered something that's just happened.

She remembers Crouch appearing out of nowhere, she remembers Harry going to get Dumbledore because Crouch had been injured, and she remembers that Crouch had said something that had terrified her but she can't remember what. It's just a blank space and it's not right. And then Krum and red and then Moody's waking her up. Her memory is gone . . . _Erased_.

Aurelia gets to her feet just in time to watch Hagrid slam Karkaroff against a tree. Hagrid demands that Karkaroff apologise to to Dumbledore and Dumbledore demands that Hagrid lets him go, he does as told.

Dumbledore instructs that Hagrid take Harry up to the castle and again Hagrid does as told. It's only when Hagrid and Harry have vanished from view that Dumbledore rounds on her "Miss. Black, do you recall anything at all, you were not stunned like Krum, leaving me to believe you have possibly witnessed what has truly taken place here."

Aurelia stares dazedly at him for a moment, her head hurts so bad. She touches the back of her head, it's warm and sticky — blood. She pulls her hand back to examine it, there's a lot of it for just a little touch. But, Mae always told her that head wounds bleed a lot heavier than other wounds, it might not be as bad as it feels.

"I'm bleeding, sir," She says faintly, blinking up at Dumbledore, only now realising how tall he is.

Dumbledore hardly looks concerned "Do you remember anything, Miss. Black."

 _Dead_.

 _A green light_?

Aurelia shakes her head "No, sir. . . My head hurts."

"Nothing?"

 _Dead. Dead. Dead_. _Dead_. Aurelia screws her eyes shut, he can't be dead because she would've remembered that. _You don't just witness a murder then forget it, especially not when you're Aurelia Black_. Merlin, her head hurts so bad.

"I — I think Crouch was murdered," Aurelia says quietly.

"By whom?"

"I don't know, sir, I don't even know he was murdered but my brain keeps telling me that he's dead and I think someone erased my memory. Sir, I think I have a concussion," Aurelia says, wincing as she touches her head again.

Still, Dumbledore hardly looks concerned as he scans the area: "Who on Earth would want to kill Barty Crouch?"

 _Who wouldn't_? Aurelia thinks sarcastically, His imprisoned albeit dead son for — her head gives a painful jolt at this.

And, maybe she's being a wee bit dramatic when she says: "Sir, please, I think I'm dying."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is the start of The Third Task, and we got some good TreeStar content in it, one last ride before things go to shit! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!!


	26. Labyrinth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which aurelia black would much rather fight david bowie for a baby than complete the third task. . ."

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR** :

 **024 ||** Labyrinth

* * *

" **EXACTLY WHAT THE** fuck are you sayin' then, Potter," Aurelia snarls scathingly, crossing her arms over her chest as she tries to appear intimidating but tears threaten to spill.

Harry struggles to find the words, he seems to be regretting confronting her about this. It's probably not the best time, she's possibly witnessed a murder and recovered from a concussion all in the span of a few days. Harry Potter, for once, had went looking for trouble and he really regrets it.

"Are you saying that I'm what? Only friends with Neville because my aunt — who I haven't seen since I was a wee babe! — wants me to get close close to him in some horrible plot to hurt the rest of the Longbottom family or what? Do you think I'm only friends with Neville because I pity him? Which one is it? Huh, Potter?!"

"I —"

"What gives you the bloody right —" Aurelia laughs abruptly, "Now this is the more important question — what gives you the bloody right to jump in and judge me like this when you have never bothered to learn anything about Neville before. You don't care about Neville enough to come here and judge me about this!"

"I —"

"You don't think I do that enough on my own, Potter? You don't think that I worry that one day Nev — Neville's going to see me how much I look like her and decide he doesn't want to be my friend or — or what if he doesn't want to be my friend at all, what if it's all been a lie what if Neville's only friends with me 'cause he's scared of me?! You don't think I don't hate myself for what she's done, you don't think I blame myself!"

Harry frowns, this is a lot more than he bargained for. He hadn't expected Aurelia to lash out like this, as far as he knew her — or thought he knew her — this kind of behaviour wasn't in her nature. The tall twig of a girl had always intimidated her for reasons he could never explain. He considers her to be one of his friends and before this year she had always wore a smile on her face but there had always been something about her that made him uneasy. Perhaps it was her relations to Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin was one of the worst people Harry knows and in Harry's mind, anyone that is involved with Draco is just as bad. Even Aurelia, who had always been kind, always looked out for her friends and even people she didn't know but the fact that she's related to Draco leaves her tainted in his mind.

He doesn't want to think that Aurelia's a bad person but that woman had looked so similar to her that for a moment he had thought that is was Aurelia who had been chained to that chair. And the revelation delivered by Dumbledore that the two of them were related had stirred weird protectiveness over Neville inside of him because it didn't make sense to him as to why Aurelia would be Neville's friend.

Something else had to be going on here, Aurelia had to be using him because she's got to be just like that woman. After all, the memory showed that Aurelia was her daughter, she did call the woman 'mama'. But, Harry does feel bad that he's made her cry, which in all fairness, isn't a hard task to accomplish these days. Still, he feels a pit in his stomach as he stands awkwardly in front of Aurelia.

She rambles on about how she's trying not to be like them, her face turning red and her hair turning gold, something Harry knows is not a good thing from Neville who never shuts up about her.

"Please, stop crying," Harry says, "I didn't mean it like that."

It's a lie but Aurelia doesn't need to know that, anyway, he hadn't meant to offend her this badly.

Her eyes narrow "Then how did you mean it, Potter?!"

"Well, Dumbledore told me that you saw what I did ("Of course, the bloody old bat did!") and that you know what your mum —"

"AUNT," Aurelia yells, gold curls tinging red.

Harry gives her his trademark confused look "But, you called her —"

"I was a dumb baby! I thought she was but really she's just my aunt," Aurelia says angrily, "My parents gave me to her because they thought I was dying and they didn't want me."

"Oh, well, okay —" He doesn't look like he believes her.

"She's not my mum!"

Harry raises his hands in surrender "Okay, okay!"

"If Dumbledore told you I know then why are you asking me if I do?"

"Well, I want to, er, know if Neville knows." Harry says, the look on Aurelia's face tells him that's the wrong thing to have said.

"Why do you want know, huh, Potter? Do you think that would change anything between Nev and I? Do you think that would stop him from being my friend?!"

"No?"

"Then why do you want to bloody know?!"

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that, well, Neville knew what he was getting into —"

"And just what is that supposed to mean?!"

Harry pales, feeling like he's digging his own grave "I, well, nothing." When he had learned that Neville is best friends with the daughter — sorry, niece — of the woman who helped torture his parents Harry had the need to make sure Neville was safe with Aurelia.

Aurelia flinches, her shoulders slump and the fight seems to leave her "I'm not dangerous."

Another trademark confused look is given because he didn't say that, out loud, at least.

"I wouldn't hurt, Neville . . . I am not like her . . . I'm not my family . . . You barely know me, you don't know what I am or what I am not capable of, Potter, but since you don't want to bother asking me yourself, I'll let you know now that I am not capable of what my aunt did and I am capable of being good. I can be good. I will be good. I will." Aurelia tells him, voice quivering with emotion.

She gives him a determined glare before turning on her heel and gliding down the corridor, Harry can only describe it as, looking as though she's an angry ghost.

He doesn't even have time to offer her an apology but, seeing how upset and angry she had been by the accusations he had made, Harry doubts she'd accept it. He also thinks Aurelia kind of blew the whole situation out of the water; he never said she was evil, she had — which is probably a good thing because he almost did and he would've regretted it the moment she started crying.

* * *

****

* * *

**AURELIA BLACK HAD** had loved Neville Longbottom from the moment she had met him. It hadn't always been a romantic kind of love, when little eleven-year-old Aurelia had met Neville for the first time, she knew that in some way they would be soulmates, from just one shy smile that he would be very important to her. She believes in soulmates, not just romantic ones but platonic ones as well and she likes to think that her and Neville are soulmates. She doesn't care what kind of soulmates they are just as long as they're in each other's lives for a very long time.

Although her parents hadn't been very loving towards her, they had been very loving towards each other, leaving Aurelia to be a hopeless romantic, (and to this day, Draco may deny this fact, but he's just as much of a hopeless romantic as she is) her parents had the most loving relationship despite the fact it had been arranged. Aurelia always wanted what they had, she just wanted someone to love her wholly. More than anything, she wants to be with Neville Longbottom, she wants to hold his hand, to kiss his cute, chubby cheeks, and kiss his plump, soft-looking lips but like, as his girlfriend.

It scares her although, weirdly enough, as much as she wants Neville to be her boyfriend, the idea of that actually happening causes her heart to race in both a good and bad way — what if she isn't enough for him, what if he realises he doesn't like her anymore, and then it ruins everything. Even their friendship. It's likely to happen because she's never been good enough for anyone.

Harry doesn't think you're enough for him, what if he's right? What if you're not even enough to be Neville's friend? What if you don't deserve to hold Neville's hand, to be hugged by him, to be anything to him? What if you're just like her? Aurelia shudders as these horrible thoughts cloud her brain. She wishes they wouldn't, their friendship is so strong, so certain, so pure and it hurts her heart to question it. She just wants to be completely confident in what they have again but, the last year had made it hard for her not to. After Alice saying that she was there when the Longbottoms were attacked, although this was likely false because Mae denied it and it wasn't mentioned in the official trial; she perhaps had know about Aurelia and confused her with Neville in her memories of that horrible night. And, of course, the fact that her uncles had tortured Neville too, he was only a baby then, they must've only put him under the Cruciatus Curse for a minute or two as Neville seemed to have no permanent damage from it. But, the fact that it was her family that did it made her insides twist ever so painfully. At least Aunt Bellatrix, unless she was acting, seemed not to know that they put Neville under the curse. Aurelia hopes she wasn't acting.

Then, Harry came and delivered the final blow to her confidence. She had often questioned the irony of her friendship with Neville but before this year, she'd never really dwell on those thoughts. Aurelia would either dismiss them or Neville would do something that would make her realise her those thoughts were wrong. They never plagued her for long. However, this year it had been different. These worries seemed to plague her every waking moment, so much so that it was getting harder and harder to dismiss.

"I don't deserve you," Aurelia declares bursting into the greenhouse where Neville is tending to some plants.

Neville tells her that's not true, moving some plants out the way to make room for her to sit. Aurelia sits up on the table, as she normally does when Neville's in the greenhouse after class but lately she hasn't spent much time with him so he's surprised to see her tonight.

"How's your head," Neville asks before she can start her rant.

"It's fine. BUT! That's not why I'm here, I'm here to tell you that I don't deserve you and some other things that will make you hate me," Aurelia says, uncharacteristically brashly.

"I could never hate you, not — not even the Imperius Curse could make me hate you," Neville vows.

Her heart swells, she fiddles with her thumbs and her brash tone softens as she says: "This just might."

He knows it won't.

"Let's just start this off by saying, I was a dumb, stupid baby — well, I still am a dumb stupid baby, I just have a better judge of character now," Aurelia takes a deep breath, "I only learned about this from Lyra a few months ago and, well, you see . . . I almost died when I was born, my parents didn't want me because of that and well, I was girl. So, they gave me to a House-Elf, expecting me to die during the night, I suppose . . . But, B — Bellatrix called upon it for Merlin knows what and it panicked and brought me along. I suppose, she healed me too, y'know, helped me survive the night . . . After that, well, Bellatrix never gave me back to my parents and . . . Well, this bloody part, I've known since I was a wee thing and please don't hate me for this —"

Neville gently squeezes her hands "I won't hate you."

"I was a baby and I didn't know any better. Merlin, I'd of clung to a warm blanket and slapped the label 'mama' on it if my parents had let me. For the longest time, I thought that Bellatrix was my mum. Then I went though a phase when I was three where I started calling her her 'mama' again because I went and convinced myself that she loved me more than my actual mother. In my wee toddler brain that meant that Bellatrix was my real mum, like I said I was a dumb and very confused wee thing. And I am so so sorry for —"

"Why are you apologising?"

"Because it's a horrible thing —"

"No, it's not."

Aurelia gives him a confused look and Neville absentmindedly tucks a strand of gold hair behind her ear as he thinks of a way to explain himself.

"It's not a horrible thing, Ari . . . I mean, she couldn't have been always evil, she had to care about someone at some point."

Neville frowns, their foreheads are touching now, he struggles to find the right words to explain himself. He knows that what he's about to say doesn't make much sense but he knows if anyone's going to understand, it'd be Aurelia.

"I — Bellatrix Lestrange is a horrible and wretched woman but she couldn't have horrible the whole life at — at least I hope she wasn't. It — It's terrifying to think that someone could be born evil, it's terrifying to think of her as this killing machine with no feelings . . . That's how Lyra describes her, Gran never speaks about her or any of them, but Lyra only ever talks about these horrible things she done, she's never once said a good thing about her and that — that's her older sister."

He sniffles "It's not like I want to hear that she's a saint or that I think that because she's done good things that she's a good person, nothing would ever make up for what she's done but when I hear from you or Ellie that she was nice to you, it makes her less scary in my mind and — and that's all I want . . . I don't want to be terrified of her because she's locked in Azkaban, I've got nothing to be scared of because she can't hurt me but Lyra's makes her to be this huge threat that I need to be scared out of my skin of and I — I don't want that. So, it's good to hear that she cared about someone other than You-Know-Who."

"I never said she was a good person," Aurelia says quickly, golden eyes going wide.

"I know you didn't but you make her less scary to me," Neville says softly, "You're the only one I can talk to about this, the only one I feel comfortable with . . . You understand better than most because she didn't just destroy my life but yours as well . . . Besides, it's not like you're actually her . . . Biological? . . . Daughter, you turned out just fine and so did Ellie."

"I still feel bad," Aurelia mumbles, fiddling with the hem of her skirt now.

"You shouldn't . . . She's your family, if anyone has a right to like her, it's you. I — I don't think it matters what you think about her as long as you can say that what she did was wrong and horrible and you — you do. I mean, you still love your parents even though you hate what they do? I think the situations are no different."

"I —" Aurelia says but Neville cuts her off, seeing the fight in her eyes, she's got an argument on the tip of the tongue but he's not going to hear it.

"Ari, you're my best friend, nothing's going to change that. This doesn't change how I see you nor does it change how I feel about you," Neville says firmly.

His nose brushes against hers and Aurelia realises two things, one being that she feels much lighter having confessed this and the other being that they're really close. Closer than usual. Her cheeks burn and palms grow sweaty, he could kiss her, her heart races, she could kiss him. _He did say he likes-likes you so that must mean he's thought about kissing you at least once so it's not like he'd be against a little kiss now. But, it doesn't mean he's thinking about kissing you right now_.

Their closeness doesn't mean anything out of the usual, Neville probably doesn't realise that he's closer than normal. It's always been hard to tell as they've both been very affectionate since, well, forever. There isn't a day that goes by that they don't hold hands or hug; Neville does most of the hugging as Aurelia believes she doesn't give good hugs. But, the point is, they've always been extremely close so this doesn't quite mean anything.

They both pull away, and just in time too, Professor Sprout enters the greenhouse. However, she must notice some tension between them as she gives them a teasing look.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Erm, no," Neville says, blushing.

"We were just practicing," Aurelia says quickly.

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days," Sprout asks lightly.

"No, I mean, for the — the third task!"

Sprout grins at Aurelia "Well, don't mind me. I'm just here to fertilise the Bubotubers."

Neville goes back to repotting the plants and Aurelia tries her best to help him but she's not really good with that aspect of Herbology.

Flustered, Neville in a low whisper says: That colour looks good on you — that red."

Aurelia's eyes widen, realising he means her lipstick. _He was thinking about kisssing you! Bloody hell_!

* * *

****

* * *

**TIME SEEMS TO** move quickly for Aurelia and before she knows it, she's sitting at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task. Her head throbs, her stress levels are probably too high to be normal, there's not a thing she's looking forward to — except maybe seeing Mae and Remus again. Aurelia will be so thrilled when this tournament is done, she'll be even more thrilled to she her parents — _oh_. She shakes her head, she's picked up the habit of referring to Mae and Remus as her parents since the last Hogsmeade trip.

Beside her sits Neville, he's trying to get her to eat something but she's not in the mood to eat, her stomach hurts too much. He eventually realises that she's not going to eat so he offers to help her practice and she's about to take him up on that offer when Professor Sprout approaches her, requesting that Aurelia follow her. Aurelia gives Neville a quick kiss on the cheek before following after Sprout, who leads her into a side chamber where it seems that champions' families have been gathered.

Seeing Mae is like a rush of relief and energy all mixed into one, Aurelia runs straight into her arm and Mae squeezes her so tight. "Wee moon," Mae says lovingly, running her fingers through Aurelia's hair which had turned red to match Mae's.

"Mum — er, Mae," Aurelia exclaims, Mae holds her tighter at that.

Standing behind Mae is Remus "Hello, Rory."

Aurelia smiles shyly "Wotcher, Remus."

"Merlin's beard, are you ever starting to sound like Nymphadora," Andromeda's voice pipes in.

Aurelia's eyes light up as she spots her aunt and uncle walking towards her "You guys came too!"

"Of course, love! We wouldn't dare miss it, Nymphadora would've loved to be here but she had to work, she said she didn't want to miss you winning the Triwizard Tournament for anything but duty called," Andromeda says, hugging Aurelia.

"I'm not going to win."

Ted ruffles her hair, smiling fondly "Keep your chin up, Lia, you're tied in first place with Harry Potter, you stand a bloody good chance of winning."

Aurelia doesn't care all that much about winning but she's grown more fond of the idea as the tournament comes to an end. She'd be more motivated to win if she bloody knew who put her name in the damned cup, to see their face when she comes out of that labyrinth victorious would be the only thing she wants. But, she still hasn't a clue who put her in this mess. So, her goal at the moment is to bloody survive.

As she pulls herself free from her aunt's grasp, there's a light tap on her shoulder. It's Fleur who's asking if she can introduce Aurelia to her family, Aurelia's fine with that and Fleur begins to gushes about how great Aurelia's been to her in French to her parents. Then, Aurelia introduces Fleur to her family.

Fleur's gaze rests upon Mae as she asks in french: ❝Your mother, is she by chance related to the fanged-earring man over there?❞

At this, Fleur smiles shyly and Aurelia can't recall ever seeing the blonde do something shyly before.

❝Aye, technically she's his aunt.❞

❝So, you're cousins with him?❞

❝No, neither Mae and I are related to him by blood. I'm not even related to Mae by blood . . . If anything, he's like my older brother. Why? Do you, perhaps, fancy him?❞

Aurelia smiles teasingly while Fleur blushes.

❝His name's Bill Weasley, he's a Curse-Breaker.❞

Smiling shyly again, Fleur glances at Bill ❝He is, how you would say, very pretty.❞

❝I suppose.❞

❝You wouldn't know, you're too busy eyeing Neville.❞

❝Fuck yeah, I am.❞

Aurelia doesn't deny this because it's said in French and it's been whispered to only Fleur.

Fleur rolls her eyes, kissing Aurelia's cheeks as she and her family head out of the hall.

Viktor comes by with his family, he says a few things in his native tongue to his parents. Whatever he says, it's good because he parents give her grateful looks before they follow their son out of the hall.

Smiling brightly, Mae says: "I see ye have made yerself a lot of friends this year."

"Aye."

"That's great, I'm glad you have, wee moon. Say, would you mind givin' me a tour. Ye know, I haven't been here before."

Aurelia grins as she links arms with Mae, exclaiming: "Of course!"

* * *

****

* * *

**DESPITE HAVING A** rather enjoyable afternoon, Aurelia finds herself scared stiff by dinner time. She's not ready for this, it's all so it too hard to breath, Aurelia slips out of the Great Hall when she thinks no one's paying attention. Aurelia leans against the wall in the side chamber, taking a deep, shuddery breath. It'll all be over soon, she tells herself. That does nothing to soothe her nerves because she knows no matter what happens, whether this tournament ends well or in flames, she'll never be the same again. Her body shakes and tears blur her vision.

"Ari," Neville questions, slipping into the chamber.

"Ye — yeah," Aurelia chokes out, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Wh —" He stops himself, he knows what's wrong, "Er, they've got chocolate cheesecake at my table —"

"M'not hungry."

Neville stands beside, grabbing her hand.

"I'm scared, Neville," Aurelia says, head throbbing as she thinks of all the things that could go wrong.

"I am too," He admits, "But, you're strong and smart and you — you're going to survive. You could even win if you want — wanted to."

Aurelia breathes heavily, her mouth runs dry "I — I —"

"Breathe," Neville says softly, giving her shaking hand a gentle squeeze. Aurelia doesn't think she can, he traces some pattern on her palm.

"You've learned how to stun, freeze, and disarm. You — you've thought of a plan and you've been practicing almost every day for months. It's very un — unlikely that something will go wrong."

"I know but — but, if I — I get too scared I — I'll panic and I — I'll forget and then I — I — I might die."

"You won't die," Neville reassures her but he won't deny that horrifying thought had crossed his mind more than once.

"I — I — I could! And, no — no one would care. That's why I'm in this fucking thing in the first place, someone wants me dead," She grinds her teeth, her breathing gets heavier as her fear mixes with anger. Someone wants her dead and no one cares, they're all so focused on either the tournament or Potter.

Neville lifts her chin up with his free hand "Ari, you're not going to die! You'll get through this alive, okay? You can do it, just — just breathe. Breathe."

Aurelia begrudgingly inhales and exhales giving Neville a pointed look, he squeezes her hand.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want to practice some more spells? We — we've got some time, Ari."

She shakes her head, she'd much rather do something calming like throw herself off the Astronomy tower.

"Anything at all," Neville asks.

"Kill me."

"Anything except that!"

"Well, I don't have any other ideas besides that. Do you have any wise ideas, Plant Boy?"

Neville opens his mouth to say something but promptly shuts it, turning a violent shade of red.

"Never mind."

"What, Neville? At this point, I'll take anything."

"Any — anything?"

"Anything."

"Are you sure?"

Aurelia nods, please involve putting me out of my fucking misery.

"Absolutely positive?"

"Yes!"

And then, he kisses her.

He leans up on his tippy-toes and presses his lips against hers, gently and softly. He pulls away quickly, it's a ghost of a kiss. Neville doesn't want to overwhelm her. Aurelia's shocked, it's not what she had expected but, she certainly doesn't hate it.

"That works," Aurelia says breathless and quietly. She wants nothing more than for Neville to kiss her again, this time, however, she wants to be able to process it, enjoy it even.

"D — does it?"

"I — I think . . . Maybe, you — you could try it again?"

Neville doesn't need to be told twice, leaning up to kiss her again. This kiss lasts longer. His one hand moves up to cradle her scarred cheek, his other hand squeezes her own hand. Neville's lips are soft and they have the faintest taste of orange and mint.

They both pull away, breathless. Neville smiles goofily, his cheeks are so red it looks as though someone's gone and blotched his cheeks with red paint. Aurelia's sure that she looks no different, she probably looks worse, she's considerably paler than Neville so when she blushes it's more noticeable.

Aurelia swallows thickly, she feels a bit confused, fear and happiness mix together. She should be concerned about her the third task and everything that could go bloody wrong and in some ways she is but her brain's trying to process the fact that Neville fucking Longbottom just fucking kissed her! Kissed! Her!

"Ari?"

"Huh?"

"Are you alright?"

She nods slowly "Yeah, I am . . . For now."

She enjoyed the kiss, it felt right and there's definitely butterflies in her stomach but she's also not even an hour away from possibly being killed in a dangerous tournament.

"Did — did you not like the kiss? Oh, may — maybe I shouldn't have kissed you — no, oh, I'm so — so — sorry, I —"

"No, it's not that! I did say you could do anything, I just — well, that wasn't the first thing I was expecting you to do. It was nice."

"It was?"

"Aye. Very."

"Are you —"

"I'm quite sure, Plant Boy. I just — so much is going on and I'm not sure how to react to anything but I did like it. I liked it very much. Very much so, that I wouldn't mind it, maybe, possibly, well, I — I don't know, maybe, perhaps, happening again in the future. I mean, that is, if you — you're okay with it happening in the future, y'know, as well," Aurelia rambles, finger-gunning him.

Neville grins, nodding eagerly "Yeah, ye — yeah, I'd like that very much."

Aurelia gives him a flustered grin "I l —"

Dumbledore's booming voice sounds from the Great Hall, announcing that the third task would be starting soon. Dread slams into her, returning at full force. Any positive emotion is sucked from her. Her mouth runs dry and her breathing quickens.

"You — you'll be alright, Ari," Neville says, squeezing her hand and she wishes she could believe him.

They hug each other tightly then Aurelia's sneaking back into the Great Hall to gather with the other champions. Mae and Andromeda are cheering loudly for her and from the Slytherin table, Ellie's screaming a chant incoherently for her. This is it.

"IFJENNIFERCONNELLYCANDOITTHENSOCANYOU," Ellie shrieks as she leaves the hall.

Bagman leads them down to the Quidditch pitch which has been swallows whole by hedges. Aurelia swallows thickly, I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready. She breathes heavily, wiping away tears as Bagman explains something to them, it just goes through one ear and out the other. A numbness takes ahold of her bones, she can't feel the ground beneath her feet, Aurelia wheezes, hating this feeling of floating.

Bagman says something about points, something about her being tied in first with Harry, Cedric in third with one less point than them. This meant that Harry and Aurelia would enter the maze first. In her mind, that equalled a recipe for disaster. The two underage and unwilling champions go in to the last task first? Oh no, nothing sounds bad about that bloody idea!

"So . . . Oh my whistle, Harry and Aurora," Bagman says.

"It's Aurelia!" The older three champions exclaim, Cedric and Fleur give Bagman cross looks.

Cedric gives Aurelia's shoulder a squeeze, wishing her the best of luck and then Bagman blows his whistle. The sharp sound is enough to drag her out of a stupor, she stumbles into the maze after Harry.

When she enters the maze, her panic increases tenfold. _It's too quiet_. There's no roar of the crowd and Aurelia feels positively isolated. As they travel down the pathway, Harry occasionally looks over his shoulder at her because she's sniffling loudly. He looks like he's going to say something every time he turns but he never does. Harry had not spoken to her at all since that little spat they had.

Eventually they reach a fork in the path, they glance at each other then Harry goes left and Aurelia takes the right. Everything becomes a blur, she walks and walks, going left and going right. She just needs to find the Triwizard Cup. It must be a portkey, it'd be much easier than having the winner walking all the way out of the maze after finding it. Aurelia hopes she won't run into any obstacles.

Aurelia turns right again — _no, this way_.

The voice is soft, female, and familiar; it brings Aurelia a sense of peace. She looks to her left — _yes, that way . . . My moon._

She inhales sharply as she recognises the voice. It's her Aunt Bellatrix. Her heart begins to race.

 _Don't you want to win_?

How the fuck is she hearing her voice? What the fuck is going on?

 _Don't you want to win_?

Aurelia frowns and wonders if this could possibly be part of the task?

 _Don't you want to win_?

It must be part of the task; it makes sense, Aurelia supposes. This voice is certainly testing her which is what these tasks are meant to do. She thinks, tightening her grip on her wand, maybe it's a charm or a spell. The voice must appear different to the other champions and it must only be triggered if they're near the cup. Yes, Aurelia thinks, that could make sense. A charm using the voice of a person a champion hates or distrusts the most to test just how willing they are to win.

 _Don't you want to win_?

Aurelia turns left, she wants to get out of here.

 _Follow me then, my moon. Follow my voice and you will surely win_.

 _Alright, alright,_ Aurelia thinks, _I'll follow you . . ._

"BLUE!"

Aurelia blinks, in front of her eyes, albeit a bit blurry, stands the Triwizard Cup.

"What," She breathes out, her head throbs painfully, how did she get here?

Cedric and Harry are yelling at her.

"You got here first," Cedric says, shaking her shoulders in an excited manor but, she doesn't remember getting here.

Cedric grins "You won, Blue! Go on, take the cup!"

"I —"

"Go on take it," Harry snaps, Aurelia glances at him and he looks like pure shit. His expression is clearly pained as he struggles to stand.

"Well, I — well, it is our ticket out of here," Aurelia says groggily, "Let's all take it, we can figure out who won when they ask."

They don't seem to hate her idea so they move forward, Cedric helps Harry do so. She wonders exactly what happened to him, whatever it was, it looks bloody painful.

"Grab it first, you got here first," Cedric says, both his and Harry's hands are inches away from the cup. Harry looks like he might murder her if she argues so she doesn't. Aurelia grabs ahold of the cup and their hands follow suit.

 _It's over_ , Aurelia thinks as feeling of relief sweeps over her body and the world starts spinning around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aurelia's hearing voices,,,, specifically her aunt's voice,,, what do you think that means? Is it something fishy or was it something meant to help her? Annnnd now for it to REALLY go down! Say goodbye to Aurelia's sanity and happiness, and get ready to say goodbye to Cedric! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!


	27. The Killing Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "in which a storm begins. . ."

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE** :

 **025 ||** The Killing Kind

* * *

**SHE WON, AURELIA** sucks in a deep breath as her body slams into the ground, she won the fucking Triwizard Tournament. Her aim had just been to survive but she had done more than that.

Her excitement about winning is short-lived as she realises that there's no cheering. In fact, there's no sound at all. Aurelia looks up, they're not at Hogwarts. Her stomach twists violently, this isn't right. This wasn't supposed to happen. They're in a graveyard. _Shit_.

Cedric helps Aurelia to her feet, asking if she's alright to which she shakes her head, trembling all over "No . . . No this —"

 _This isn't right_. She should've known something wasn't right the moment that she heard her aunt's voice. Aurelia had thought that it was part of the task but now she's starting to think it's all part of a trap. This has to be a trap. Something bad is going to happen. Her entire body starts to burn, it feels like flames are licking every part of her, it doesn't hurt but, rather it feels like a fever fighting off an infection.

 ** _DANGER_**!

"Did anyone say anything about the cup being a portkey," Cedric asks.

"Well, no. But, I reckoned it was especially since all we had to do was find it. It was supposed to bring us back to Hogwarts," Aurelia whispers, eyeing the graveyard before her nervously.

"Maybe this is part of the task," Harry says.

"I dunno, wands out d'you reckon," Cedric suggests, sounding very nervous which only makes Aurelia feel worse.

Nevertheless, she pulls out her wand as well. She freezes up hearing distant voices and footsteps, through the dark, misty air Aurelia thinks she can see someone approaching.

"A Hufflepuff boy, Bell — Bella's daughter, and yes, yes, Potter," A voice whispers fearfully.

Her heart starts to race, she swears she recognises that voice from somewhere but where — _wait_! _Someone's watching us_! She opens her mouth to alert Cedric and Harry but a second voice whispers — a voice she recognises all too well.

"Do you not mean, Bella's bastard?!"

 _Noelle's here_? What's she doing here? Somehow, Noelle's presence unnerves her even more.

"Someone's coming," Harry says.

"We need to get back to the cup," Aurelia tells them, her voice strangled.

Aurelia swallows thickly, two figures are approaching them, the one that resembled a female holds a bundle of blankets and for reasons Aurelia cannot explain, she's filled with dread, they're just blankets! And then the blankets move ever so slightly as the two figures come to a stop in front of a gravestone. At the same time, Harry cries out in pain as he falls to his knees.

 _Voldemort_! She knows at once that whatever's happening here is about that monster of a man. A fearful cry escapes her lips and then a high, cold voice declares: "Kill the spare!"

The female-shaped figure points her wand at Cedric.

"NO," Aurelia screams, throwing herself in front of Cedric — _I'm going to die! Good Godric, I'm going to die and Cedric's probably going to be next! Maybe I've given him some time to get away, to get back to the cup —_

Noelle cries "Avada Kedavra!" and it's followed by a whoosh of air and a bright green light and the worst pain imaginable.

Aurelia thought it was supposed to be painless but, it's not. It's worse than the werewolf claws, it's worse than the Cruciatus Curse. Aurelia screams and screams, it feels like someone's gone and shoved a burning spear through her ribs and then it spreads all over her body. Her vision turns from sickly green to vibrant purple. The pain, the awful burning intensifies, feeling once more like a fever fighting off an infection and then it stops. She feels so weak, so numb and she falls against Cedric who falls to the ground. She never expected death to be so painful.

"You — you hit Bella's child! Ma — Master will not be pleased!"

Gwendoline Goyle's voice shrieks "Shut up, rat! She jumped in front of that stupid Hufflepuff! It's not my fault! Besides, she was just a filthy Half-Blood, our lord will get over it. He will forgive me."

Suddenly, Aurelia's very aware of her pounding heart. It aches with each beat, she can't be alive. It's impossible, she knows for a fact that the curse hit her this time, she felt it and — _Cedric_! If she's alive then so is he! Aurelia pulls herself to her knees with great difficulty, everything hurts. Her eyelids are heavy and black spots obscure her vision. Cedric isn't moving at all, his eyes are wide open, mouth open in pure horror. _Dead_. He's dead.

"No," Aurelia screams out hoarsely in anguish, "Diggs! No! No!"

 _No_. No, he can't be dead, if she's not dead then neither is he. Why had she lived while he had died, it makes no sense, he must've hit his head on a stone or something.

"See! I did kill the spare, the filthy bastard child is fine!" Goyle shrieks.

"Diggs, come on," Aurelia whimpers, every word sends a terrible ache through her heart, "Wake — wake up! C'mon, get up. Cedric, we've got to get to the cup, we — we —"

He doesn't move at all.

Someone grabs her by her hair, a meek yelp escapes her lips as she's tugged to her feet. From the corner of her eye, she sees the other figure heading for Harry, _they're going to die, they're going to die, they're going to die_. Aurelia cries meekly, she can't even fight against her captor. Her entire body aches, it feels so heavy and she just wants to sleep. She whines as she's thrown back on the ground, her head slams into a headstone, she wants to scream but no sound comes out even when she looks up and sees Noelle towering over her.

There's a wicked grin on her face "You shouldn't have trusted me so easily, girl, you're as weak as your mother."

Aurelia shakes her head in disbelief, confused to all hell. Her heart races painfully in her chest, it hurts so much she wishes it would just stop instead; she can't breathe, she can't bloody breathe.

Noelle's face changes, it shifts and twists and suddenly Gwendoline Goyle is standing in her place.

"Yo — y — you," Aurelia cries meekly. Her heart gives another painful jolt and her stomach twists violently. Bile rises up in her throat, burning it and she gags. Goyle laughs shrilly as she watches Aurelia choke on her own vomit. Aurelia turns her head with all her strength and coughs it up.

Goyle moves closer and Aurelia snarls "Get — get a — away fr — from me!"

Goyle makes a weird purring sound as she lightly kicks Aurelia "Though you may be as weak as Bella, I will admit, you are so much more fun to play with . . . Less compliant," she licks her lips hungrily, "You put up more of a fight, a pathetic one but, a fight nonetheless. And, I do love it when they put up a fight. You'd be the perfect replacement for Bella, pity you're a filthy Half-Blood!"

"I — I am no — noth — nothing l — like th — that craze — crazy b — b — bitch," Aurelia chokes out.

Goyle giggles "Now, that's no way to speak about your mummy."

Aurelia looks at her, confused. Laughing, Goyle places her hands on her hips "And, Barty said you were smart!"

"Bar — bar — Barty?"

"Baby Barty Jr.! Ha, you've met him but, I must say it wasn't a very pleasant experience for you, Wolfie!"

"W — w — what?"

Goyle rolls her eyes "You somehow figured out that Barty was still alive and loose but, you can't figure out the most important thing about yourself?"

"I — what?"

Goyle huffs, her hair turns a dark red — she's a Metamorphmagus!

Aurelia's eyes widen, she had thought maybe it had been Polyjuice Potion but she's a Metamorphmagus just like me!

"Your real mummy, you dumb mutt!"

Aurelia inhales sharply then chokes on it "N - no _you_ — _you_ can't b — b — be, you —"

Goyle kicks her roughly, square in the ribs, earning a weak scream from Aurelia.

Her face twists in anger but, she doesn't deny it. Unbeknownst to Aurelia, Goyle contemplates whether or not, she should go along with that just to see how badly it messes Aurelia up. After all, Goyle had almost been Aurelia's mother but, Bellatrix had stolen her thunder.

"I am not your mother, you filthy mutt! How dare you even think you're worthy enough to be my child," Goyle shrieks, kicking Aurelia again but, harder this time and Aurelia struggles to breathe.

Her head hurts, she feels sick to her stomach, and she's so confused — Barty Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix, why is she talking about them? Had they escaped? It could be possible, she did hear Bellatrix's voice earlier but, she had thought it was part of the task but it was a trap. Her aunt had lured her to her death and somehow Barty is involved, he didn't die.

Where is Bellatrix, she hasn't seen or heard the woman since arriving at the — Aurelia's mind goes completely blank as Goyle kicks her again and Aurelia swears she feels and hears something crack.

Suddenly, it's much more painful to breathe.

"Don't you get it, Wolfie? Or do I have to spell it out for you?!"

Aurelia wheezes, she tries to move away from Goyle but she's much too slow and Goyle's heavy boot slams down on her chest. Something shifts that Aurelia knows shouldn't have and she howls in pain.

"I am not your mother and neither is Narcissa," Goyle laughs shrilly, "Got any guesses, Wolfie?!"

"N — n — no!" Aurelia pants, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Gwen," A cold voice calls out.

Goyle instantly turns away from Aurelia, standing straight as she addresses the voice: "My lord."

Aurelia freezes, her blood runs cold and she thinks she might be sick again.

 _Voldemort's back_. She can see him, although he's a bit obscured by both her blurry vision and Goyle.

"I thought my instructions were clear, Gwen, you were not to harm Bella's child."

"My lord, she's a Blood-Traitor!"

"I am aware, Gwen."

 _Oh, Merlin! I'm going to die_!

"Then you should kill her!"

Voldemort sneers at Goyle "At this moment, I will not be killing her. Blood Traitor or not. She's still young, she can be taught . . . Barty has told me that she could be useful, he's mentioned that she's almost as talented as Bella . . . Just as loyal as Bella and I need loyal followers. For now, she shall be Bella's reward for her loyalty to me."

"But, my — my lord! Her filthy mutt won't serve you, I know her well, she's too loyal to Dumbledore!" Goyle says indignantly, clearly determined to kill Aurelia.

"She is too young to serve me now. But, I know one day she will and she will be as powerful and as loyal as Bella, she will serve me well. She won't be a traitor for long, Bella will teach her and only Bella."

His gleaming red eyes land on her — _Merlin, I'm going to die_!

"Stand," He commands.

Her body goes numb and she's on her feet within seconds, it doesn't hurt at all and Aurelia wonders if he's controlling her but his wand's not pointed at her and Goyle looks beyond surprised that Aurelia had managed to stand.

Voldemort grabs her face roughly as he examines her every feature "Pity, you look more like your Half-Breed father."

He stares at her intensely, his ruby gaze was almost violating, there's a pressure on her head and Aurelia knows that he's trying to get into her thoughts. She doesn't think she can block him out, he pushes past her barrier but he gets nowhere, which surprises Aurelia and seems to impress Voldemort. He tilts her head up and goes to say something when, Harry's strangled cry echoes the graveyard.

"Don't touch her," Harry yells, from halfway across the graveyard, voice filled with venom and it surprises Aurelia that he's defending her and not accusing her of setting this up.

Voldemort seems to remember something, he turns to Goyle, hissing: "Your arm, Gwen."

Goyle holds out her arm without hesitation, Voldemort presses his finger against her faded Dark-Mark, turning it pitch black.

"It is back, they will all have noticed it . . . And now, we shall see . . . Now we shall know . . . How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it? And, how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"

Aurelia sobs, more black spots dance across her vision, she wonders just how the fuck is she even standing this straight without feeling any pain. It's impossible but, _if you fall, you'll surely die_. Her head is swimming, the graveyard spins around her and Aurelia thinks she should be unconscious by now, maybe even dead. _How many times did Goyle kick you? Merlin, I wish I was dead_!

"A weepy little mutt, isn't she," Goyle questions, looking at Voldemort with wide, starry eyes, "She's too weak to be one of us!"

Voldemort sneers at Goyle then at Aurelia "Yes, Barty did say she was a bit emotional but nothing Bella won't be able to fix when the time comes. I must reward Bella for her faithful service and she is the only way."

Aurelia's head feels like it's on a rollercoaster that's headed for the ground at full speed but her body remains standing straight, she wants to scream, and cry, and lay down but her body won't let her. She keeps standing straight and practically stoic, except for a few sobs here and there. Her cries are getting on Voldemort's nerves and before she's able to realise that, his cold, pale hand has slammed into her face — he's bloody bitch-slapped her!

It knocks her to her feet — _he's done with you_ , her brain tells her — the blow had been so hard Aurelia's certain it's going to bruise — he's done with you and the pain in her limbs and especially her chest return at full force.

"Keep her quiet," Voldemort tells Goyle, turning to face Harry.

Voldemort starts to give Harry what Aurelia thinks is his family history lesson but she's not too sure because she's distracted by Goyle, who points her wand at her "Silencio!"

Goyle pins Aurelia to the ground, sitting on top of her "Now for me to have some real fun now that no one can hear you scream. Don't worry, I won't kill you! You're lucky, master said that I'm not allowed to! — Diffindo!"

Aurelia's blouse and bra are sliced open, Goyle aggressively pulls at the fabric, exposing Aurelia's bare chest and stomach to the cold air, she tries her best to fight against Goyle but she's much too heavy and Aurelia's much too weak. Calloused hands run down Aurelia's bare chest, Goyle huffs "Bellatrix was much better."

"Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Get off me! Get off me," Aurelia yells but, no sound escapes.

"Oh, Wolfie, I'm not gonna do that, I'm just getting started!" Goyle laughs easily reading the young girl's lips, she points her wand at Aurelia, "Flag —"

"How long have you been posing as Noelle?!" Aurelia exclaims, desperate to distract the Death-Eater. Of course, no sound comes out but, Goyle seems to be able to read her lips just fine, her eyes light up and her grin widens.

"Since before I met you at the World Cup! It's a shame the Müillers had to die, they were pureblood but I certainly wasn't going to spend the year posing as some half-blood! How they begged for the lives! If you would've spent more time around Krum you would've learned that Noelle Edwyn Godwin doesn't exist, you would've learned that little Mila? Marie Muiller had been acting quite off since the start of the term but ch'you didn't! You were too busy moping and weeping around like a pathetic little mutt to figure out that I gave you a fake name, that no one in Durmstrang really trusted me anymore or that slippery Karkaroff was petrified of me. Barty was a little nervous — the little bitch was quick to change his views about you after that Imperious lesson — that you'd figure it out, that a measly little anagram of my name was too easy for your filthy-blooded self but ch'you didn't!"

"Actually, you're missing — "

Goyle digs her knees into Aurelia's ribs, there's a louder crack this time and a weird, painful feeling spreads through her chest. Aurelia screams silently as Goyle carries on with her story.

"As soon as my master told me I needed to get into Hogwarts, I knew exactly what to do, while Barty had his disgusting Polyjuice method I had my Metamorphmagus abilities, it took me awhile to find the perfect person to take over. I'm a bit picky, you see . . . But, besides that, it was so easy, I'm so good at what I do. I bet you twenty galleons that Dumbledore doesn't even know about my little gift! Anyway!" She pokes Aurelia's nose with something sharp, Aurelia's vision is too blurry to see exactly what it is, "I was posing as Noelle at the Quidditch World Cup when I was lucky enough to run into you and I got even luckier when I realised you turned out to be dyke just like your precious mumsie!"

Something hot and sharp presses against Aurelia's stomach, it digs into her, breaking her skin. It burns so badly; Aurelia soundlessly screams and screams while Goyle laughs. The older woman's hand is hot against Aurelia's bare upper thigh, she tries to kick and throw Goyle off of her but she's much too weak and Goyle just digs the weapon deeper into her body.

"It was me who put your name into the goblet — Barty wasn't too fond of this idea, he thought master would be mad but, Barty doesn't like to have any fun! You even watched me do it! You thought it was Noelle putting her own name in there. I've been Noelle this whole time and I must say, Wolfie, you're a prude! Not even one kiss! I bet ch'you were down on your knees for that Longbottom brat the whole time, he's a screamer that one, you should've heard him that night those years ago, sounded just like his mummy."

It feels like Goyle's carving something into Aurelia's stomach, whatever she's using Aurelia swears she can feel it scraping against her hip bone. Her stomach twists and bile rises up her throat again, her eyelids are getting heavier and harder to open — _I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I don't want —_

There's a bright flash of purple and Goyle screams. Aurelia's eyes shoot open at the sound of her pained screaming, there's a melting dagger in her hands which have burnt to a crisp, they were bloody and blistering.

She blames Aurelia immediately even though there's no possible way Aurelia could've done it, she's wandless and she's got no idea what kind of spell would do that. Goyle aims her foot at Aurelia's head — _this is it, I'm done for_ — but, a huddled figure stands over her.

"Ma — master will not like it if you hurt her anymore," The figure squeaks.

She glares at the figure who flinches, stammering: "I — I — I'm only try — trying to help you, Gwen."

"Or are you trying to help the mutt, Wormtail," Goyle snarls, "Merlin knows it wouldn't be the first mutt you've helped."

 _Wormtail_? . . . _Oh, Peter Pettigrew_ . . . Aurelia's brain starts swimming again, he's here too . . . _Remus' old friend . . . I want Remus . . . I want Mae . . . I want this to end_.

"Master will be angry if you hurt her too — too badly," Wormtail whimpers.

Goyle, surprisingly and thankfully, back down. She rushes over to a circle of cloaked figures — Death-Eaters! Her blood runs cold and her heart races but she wishes it wouldn't because it's very painful.

"The Lestranges should stand here . . ." Voldemort is saying, his voice sounds far way.

Aurelia closes her eyes for what only feels like seconds when she's jolted awake by someone grabbing her. A silent scream falls from her lips, weakly thrashing about as Wormtail drags her over to — _no_! Tears blur her vision, burning her eyes as she's dragged towards Cedric's still body.

"No, no, no!"

Wormtail drops her body over Cedric's and scurries away, Aurelia reaches out with all her strength and grabs her wand which is just inches from his body. Just in case Gwen comes back. Aurelia clings to Cedric's dead body, sobbing silent apologies. She couldn't save him, she tried, she tried, she tried . . . Aurelia closes her eyes, they're too heavy to keep open. Every now and then a scream will jolt her awake but she's too weak to lift her head to see where it's coming from so she let's herself slip back into darkness.

She's once more jolted awake by a gentle hand turning her over, Aurelia lashes out and hits whoever is grabbing her but in her weakened state it does little to stop whoever has her. A face, one that's familiar but blurry is nearly pressed close it hers.

"Sirius," She says, still under the silencing charm, no sound comes out but that's who she swears is standing before her and for a moment she's flooded with relief because it's Sirius but it's overtaken by dread because he doesn't stand a chance against everyone here.

" _Shit_ , little star," He says and it's not Sirius. The voice is much too soft, she peers at him as hard as she can and realises he's much to well-kept looking to be Sirius but he does look a lot like Sirius.

Aurelia tries to move away from whoever he is but he stops her.

"It's okay, I'm a friend, I'm here to help you, little star . . . You can trust me but you have to keep still, if anyone sees me," He doesn't finish his sentence and Aurelia stills herself, realising there's no point in fighting whether he's telling the truth or not.

"Who are you," Aurelia says but unlike Goyle, he can't read her lips.

He brandishes his wand and her eyes widen but he hushes her, he waves it about with some eleborate hand gesture that Aurelia faintly recognises.

"Don't speak too loudly, little star, we can't have anyone overhearing or I'll be dead for good this time," He says, pushing her hair out her face, "You look so much like your mother, little star, she was always my favourite. You've done so well tonight and I'm proud of you . . . I wish there was more that I can do to help."

"Who are you," Aurelia croaks out, this time a strangled sound escapes her, he must've used the counter-curse on her, She opens her eyes as wide as she can to study him more.

"Now isn't the best time for introductions, little star, but I'm sure we'll meet again under better circumstances," He says.

Her eyes widen as she realises she knows where she's seen him before — that weird dude from St. Mungo's. So, he was a Death-Eater. He must've strayed from Voldemort's side or something like that, not many live to tell that tale.

"I'll be around more, I should have been in the first place but I thought it was too dangerous," He whispers, "Now it is dangerous but I have to protect my family, I'm sure you understand, you're a good kid so much like your mother and my brother."

He silently waves his wand and the cup is summoned towards Aurelia "Don't touch the cup until Potter can get away from Voldemort, I know he will . . . Potters have always been too good at weaseling their way out of trouble. I have to go now, little star, we'll meet again soon."

Aurelia reaches out for him, wanting to go where ever he was going but he pulls away from her and soundlessly disappears in a blink of an eye. Aurelia cries out, feeling hopeless and knowing that she was more than likely going to die tonight, she doesn't want to die but she doesn't have the strength to reach for the cup, she doesn't want to reach for it. More than anything, she wants this all to be over. Her head, once more getting to heavy too hold, sinks down on Cedric's unmoving chest. With not much else she can do, Aurelia closes her eyes again, the pain she feels seems to numb as darkness greets her.

Then suddnely Voldemort's shrieking: "I will kill him! He is mine!"

Someone's body slams into hers and then there's a weird feeling in her head and she knows that they're safe, Harry's got the portkey. They're safe, Aurelia thinks as she closes her eyes. Her body slams into the ground and she squeezes her eyes tighter, Harry's grip on her tightens and her grip on Cedric tightens. She's alive but, he's not. It's not fair, it should've been her!

"Harry! Harry," Dumbledore's shouting, the crowd is going crazy, people are screaming. They know something's wrong. She can hear Mae shouting too, people are crowding around them, she can tell by the noise they're making; her head throbs.

Someone yells into the night: "Diggory's dead! Black's dead too!"

Aurelia doesn't bother to object and she doesn't think she can as she scarcely breath and she can't move because of Harry who is on top of her. Neville's cry pierces the air, she hears her other friends screaming as well.

"Harry, you can't help them now. It's over. Let go," Dumbledore says.

"He wanted me to bring him back . . . He wanted me to bring him back to his parents," Harry mutters.

Dumbledore pulls Harry off of Aurelia, softly muttering: "That's right, Harry . . . Just let go now."

"He'll need to go to the hospital wing!" Fudge says loudly, "He's ill, he's injured — Dumbledore, Diggory's and Black's parents, they're here, they're in the stands!"

"I'll take Harry, Dumbledore, I'll take him —" Moody says, he sounds a bit odd — only a little bit different than normal.

Aurelia's blood runs cold, he's Barty Jr. She's not sure how she managed to make the connection and she could probably be wrong but he's got to be Barty. Goyle mentioned that he used Polyjuice potion and that he was here at Hogwarts but she never said who. Moody was new, Moody . . . If she recalls correctly, Moody had been attacked before the start of the school year, meaning it's plausible that — Neville is screaming.

"No, I would prefer —" Dumbledore begins to say but he's interrupted.

"Dumbledore, Amos Diggory's running . . . he's coming over, Longbottom, and Lupin too . . . Don't you think you should tell them — before they see . . ?"

"Ari! Ar — Ari! What's wrong? Why is — isn't she moving? Ari — let me go! I sa — let me go, I wanna see her! I want to see Asterope," Neville screams, he sounds like he's crying.

Aurelia pulls herself up, the effort makes her dizzy. Everything going on around her is making her dizzy, she's so confused. Fudge and a few others gasp in horror, Aurelia looks around. Amos is running forward, Neville is being held back by Remus, and Mae is pulling her into her arms. From the corner of her eye, she sees Moody dragging Harry away, they're almost out of sight.

He's got to be Barty!

She's got to warn someone but she struggles to speak, Harry's in danger — _danger_? Yes, Harry's in danger! Aurelia's got to save him — there's a weird pressure in her throat and that feverish burning coats it and when she opens it all that comes out is a loud, pained scream. Aurelia crumples against Mae's body "He's back! Vol — Voldemort's back! Bar — Barty Crouch Jr is here, he's alive! He's been here this whole ti — time! Goyle — Gwen — Gwendoline Goyle too! And Bellatrix — I heard her voice, they're all here and ha — Harry is in dang — danger," Aurelia rambles incoherently, she can't even understand what she's trying to say and no one else understands her either, they stare at her, confused and concerned.

"She's hit her head!"

"She's gone mad!"

"Someone sedate her!"

A wand presses against her forehead and everything fades away.

* * *

****

* * *

**WHEN AURELIA WAKES** up, she thinks that it's all been a dream until she sees a blurry Dumbledore standing before her. Her head is still spinning and her body aches, it's not a dream, tears burn her eyes as she struggles not to cry.

"Here, wee moon," Mae says softly, leaning in front of Aurelia with a potion in her hands, "Drink this, it'll make you feel a wee bit better."

Mae pours the peppery-tasting potion down her throat and everything becomes much clearer to Aurelia.

"I — I tried to s — save h — h — him, Diggs, I did . . . He's dead, isn't he," Aurelia whimpers as Mae wipes excess potion from her chin.

Aurelia's eyes widen as she remembers Harry as well "Harry! Wh — where's Harry, Moo — Moody —"

Dumbledore raises a hand to silence her, she lowers her voice, rambling on about Barty Jr., Goyle, and Bellatrix.

"Relax, Aurelia, take a deep breath. Harry is as safe as can be, regarding the circumstances. In fact, he's sitting right beside you. It seems that Barty Crouch Jr. has been disguised as Alastor Moody all year under Polyjuice Potion. I'm curious, Aurelia, as to how you came to learn this information? Do you remember alerting us of this before Fudge sedated you?"

Aurelia nods, breathing shallowly as she glances at Harry, who's pale-faced and petting Fawkes.

"Goyle — Gwen — Gwendoline Goyle told me. She was there at — at the graveyard. She's been at hog — Hogwarts all year." Aurelia cries, "She was posing as a Durmstrang student, no — Noelle!"

"There was no one on the Durmstrang list with that name —"

"No, it — it was a fake na — name! She gave me a fake name, she — I'm so dumb! I feel so violated! I was date — dating Noelle and — and the whole time she was a bloody grown ass woman!"

"She used Polyjuice potion then?"

"No — no . . . She was — she's a Metamorphmagus . . . Like me."

Dumbledore looks genuinely surprised, muttering something under his breath. Then he looks back up "It seems Bellatrix wasn't lying . . . There was speculation from her but there was never any proof. Goyle must be skilled with her Metamorphmagus abilities, in all her years at Hogwarts I never once witnessed them. It must be how she's managed to evade the Ministry all these years —"

"Yeah, no shit," Aurelia mutters irritably, "Whoever she took the form of, they're dead. Their whole family is dead. Goyle said . . . She said, Müiller . . . I think . . . I — I —"

Aurelia starts to cry, her body aches, an innocent family had been slaughter, Goyle had been using her all year, and Cedric's dead.

Dumbledore asks them to explain what happened in the graveyard and both Mae and Sirius aggressively protest against it, insisting that Harry and Aurelia should rest first.

"If I thought I could help them, by putting them into an enchanted sleep and allowing them to postpone the moment when they would have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it. But I know better. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you, Harry. I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened."

Harry begins the story of what had taken place, he doesn't get very far. When he says that Aurelia had jumped in front of the Killing Curse to save Cedric, Mae lets out an anguished cry.

Not: "What were you thinking?!"

But, rather: "I knew it!"

"It didn't miss me," Aurelia says numbly, "It — It hit me . . . I felt it, mer — Merlin, it was horrible."

She breathes shallowly, praying that someone would disagree with her but no one does.

Harry and Sirius stare at her, shocked, horrified, and a tiny bit of in disbelief. Mae sobs quietly, running her fingers through Aurelia's gold hair.

Dumbledore gives her this stare that has shivers running down her spine — _stop looking at me like that_! — he tuns to Mae, asking: "Is she a Donum Vitae?"

Begrudgingly, Mae nods, glaring at Dumbledore as she replies: "Aye, she is."

Aurelia remembers that Voldemort had said her father was a Half-Breed, does that mean she's a Half-Breed as well? _Disgusting_. So, she's a Donum Vitae, whatever that means. She doesn't know what they are but she knows she doesn't like them. She should be a Pureblood. If she had been a Pureblood then her parents — _they're not your parents_. _You heard Voldemort, your mother is Bellatrix Lestrange_! Aurelia cries quietly and Dumbledore asks Harry to continue with the story. He does and Aurelia can barely keep up with it, realising they had went through two entirely different situations.

Harry says something that has Sirius and yelling in anger and Dumbledore on his feet, asking to see the wound. Harry extends his arm, saying: "He said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's. He said the protection my — my mother left in me — he'd have it too. And he was right — he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face."

Something akin to triumph flashes in Dumbledore's eyes and Aurelia thinks she might've imagined it. She hopes she imagined it but the disgusted look on Mae's face tells Aurelia that she hadn't. "Very well, Voldemort has overcome that particular barrier. Harry, continue, please," Dumbledore says, sitting back at his desk.

Harry goes on to explain how Voldemort had emerged from the cauldron, retelling them all that he could remember of Voldemort's speech to the Death Eaters, Aurelia hadn't heard half of that speech just like Harry did not hear half of what Voldemort had said when he had approached her. Then he tells them how Voldemort had untied him, returned his wand to him, and prepared to duel. He pauses for a moment then explains how a golden beam of light had connected his and Voldemort's wands, he paused again, thinking hard and Aurelia could see it. It's a bit blurry and it's coming in and out like T.V static but she could see Cedric emerging, an old man, a woman and his parents, they looked like ghosts to her.

Sirius distracts her, asking Dumbledore: "The wands connected? Why?"

"Priori Incantatem."

"The Reverse Spell effect?"

"Exactly, Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand share cores. Each of them contains a feather from the tail of the same phoenix. This phoenix, in fact," Dumbledore says, pointing at the scarlet-and-gold bird, perching peacefully on Harry's knee.

"My wand's feather came from Fawkes?"

"Yes," Dumbledore tells Harry, "Mr. Ollivander wrote to tell me you had bought the second wand, the moment you left his shop four years ago."

"So what happens when a wand meets its brother," Mae asks, looking concerned for Harry, almost as concerned as Sirius looked.

"They will not work properly against each other. If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle . . . A very rare effect will take place. One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed — in reverse. The most recent first . . . And then those which preceded it. . . . Which means, that some form of Cedric must have reappeared."

"Diggory came back to life," Sirius asks, Aurelia wishes that were true.

"No _spell_ can reawaken the dead," Dumbledore says heavily, "All that would have happened is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of the living Cedric would have emerged from the wand . . . Am I correct, Harry?"

"He spoke to me. The . . . The ghost Cedric, or whatever he was, spoke."

"An echo, which retained Cedric's appearance and character. I am guessing other such forms appeared . . . Less recent victims of Voldemort's wand."

"An old man," Harry answers, "Bertha Jorkins. And . . ."

"Your parents?"

"Yes."

"The last murders the wand performed . . . In reverse order. More would have appeared, of course, had you maintained the connection. Very well, Harry, these echoes, these shadows . . . What did they do?"

Harry describes how the figures that had emerged from the wand had prowled the edges of the golden web, how Voldemort had seemed to fear them, how the shadow of Harry's father had told him what to do, how Cedric's ghost had made its final request. Aurelia is sobbing, trying to muffle the sound with her hands. _He's dead and you couldn't save him_! She looks away from Harry and the image vanishes.

The curse had just went right through her, the must be something Donum Vitaes can do. Donum Vitae is one of the nicknames Mae had given her and Aurelia had never thought it meant something like that. She knew it meant 'gift of life' but she hadn't realised it was an entire species. Why had she never heard of them before? Are they rare? What else can she do? What is she capable of, if she can survive death?

Wait, Voldemort had survived death too? Is he a Donum Vitae? _Oh, Merlin! Is he my father_? No, he can't be, he would have insulted himself and so would've Goyle. Besides, he's known for killing his own children, so I would've been dead before I saw the light of day. It can't be possible . . . But, you heard how he talked about your aunt — _your mum_! — he's obsessed with her. It's obvious he favours her above all his other Death-Eaters . . . Maybe . . . Just maybe he had decided to have a child with her.

Aurelia sinks in her seat, her ribs ache painfully but she doesn't care. _What if Voldemort's my father_? She breathes shallowly, wishing she had died in that graveyard. _It's possible, but it's unlikely_.

Fawke's fluttering wings rip her from her spiralling thoughts.

"I will say it again," Dumbledore says "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Harry. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard's burden and found yourself equal to it — and you have now given us all that we have a right to expect. You will come with me to the hospital wing. I do not want you returning to your dormitories tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace . . . Sirius, Maeve would you like to stay with them?"

It's a question that didn't need to be asked, of course, they wanted to stay. Sirius transforms into a dog, Mae helps Aurelia stand. They head down to the Hospital Wing, Sirius, Harry, and Dumbledore are in the lead while Mae and Aurelia trail behind them.

"Mum," Aurelia says softly, not realising what she had just called Mae. The redhead looks at her, she's pale as a ghost and she's sweating profusely but she manages to give Aurelia a soft smile.

"Is . . . Is Bellatrix really my mum?"

There's a long pause before Mae finally nods her head: "Aye, she is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No matter how many times I rewrite this book, revealing the fact Aurelia's Bellatrix's kid never gets old! It's bit underwhelming because Ari's in shock and she hasn't really had time to process it, plus it's not supposed to be the big plot-twist like pretty much every adult around Aurelia knew they just couldn't tell her (for reasons) and so that's why I laid the forshadowing on thick and it won't be a big reveal until Neville finds out 👀👀! Also, I swear to God, I have good reason for why Aurelia survived the Killing Curse, it will be explained soon and it's kinda similar to how Harry survived but only a little bit. As for the Donum Vitae thing, do you think it's a type of Magical Being or do you think it's something else?
> 
> also now that's it's been revealed about Noelle\Goyle (something I've had planned since the beginning) I can finally get this off my chest: I aM dIsGuStEd, I aM rEvOlTeD, i Am dEdIcAtInG mY eNtIrE LIfE tO oUr LoRd aNd SaViOuR, JeSuS ChRiSt! It's straight up why I neveR mAde them kiss during their 'relationship' like Gwen\Noelle would've done it,,, just to mess with Aurelia,,, because she's a piece of garbage but I wouldn't allow myself to let that happen!
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!


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